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Just watched the documentary, The Lost World of Mr. Hardy. It was really interesting they had 100 fly tiers at the factory, who started at age 14, tied for a year as an apprentice before any of their flies were not stripped back down to a bare hook. He said, "Everything changed when we went from being a manufacturing company to a marketing company and there was no going back." Rim praised some of their reels over the years, but they have largely become cheap fakes of what they once were, back when they were made by hand in England. They also haven’t had any good new innovations since then either. Much the same as happened to our Orvis over here.  When Orvis went from being a manufacturing firm for the outdoorsman to a marketing company for stuff made in China, everything changed.  It no longer has the passion, design and innovation which made it famous amongst outdoorsman.  The same can be said of L.L. Bean, Eddie Bauer, and many of the formerly great American outdoor companies.  

Rick Bishop at Western Traditions has been our hat guy for twenty years now, but  Rick and Diane Bishop, who own and run Western Traditions, recently retired. They had a great booth at the rodeos that sold quality cowboy hats, along with cleaning and reshaping most other cowboy hats for just $15. They travel the country with their products and services, setting up at numerous events, including the National Western, Houston Stock Show, Cheyenne Frontier Days and the National Finals Rodeo in Vegas. We used to buy all of our western hats from Rick. Now Bobby, who worked for them for 10 years, owns and runs a Bailey hat store in the Livestock Arena, called Chevarria Hat Co. Same great service and knowledge. And we love Lucchese and Anderson Bean boots, from fish boots, to Cape Buffalo cutters (10EE is my favorite size in Bean cutters), elephant in traditional square toes (order one size down, such as 9EE for me in Bean), all the way to roper or Buckaroo styles. Top it off with a 100x felt or an American Hat Company straw. In 2026, the legacy is carried on by his longtime employees Bobby and Heath in Exhibitors top floor near the new NW club. Guide to the Different Types of Cowboy Hats from www.langstons.com Get the skinny on the Western hat with this handy cowboy and cowgirl hat guide. From classic men's cowboy hats inspired by famous big-screen ropers like John Wayne to traditional Calamity Jane style cowboy hats for women, this guide covers the gamut of Western hat styles.Types of Cowboy Hats You may think a cowboy hat is just a cowboy hat, but that's not so. There are many unique types of

Kintsugi: What a Broken Bowl Can Teach Us https://youtu.be/OUlcDThfhUU Make do and mend. Sometimes it takes imagination to see potential. A little goes a long way. A little goes a long way. Useful fragments. Perfectly imperfect. An imperfect perfection created by time. Worn objects have a story to tell. Stripping something back to its natural state let’s you see the materials for what they are. Keeping it simple. Metal that has been clouded by time is sublime. Wabi-Sabi appreciates the natural world. There is joy in the art of making. The handmade can often be thrifty and ingenious. Small pleasures, rethinking the ordinary. Put to good use. Flexible living. Simplicity as an aesthetic ideal. Soulful simplicity. Tune into nature. Things change, that’s life. Rich is the person that is content with what they have. Hypocrisy is preached by the world’s biggest hypocrites. Find beauty in every day life. Create small rituals to bring us to the present. I don’t know. When everyone dies, then we will see. The remaining is adapted from an article by ALIA HOYT Video from http://www.lakesidepottery.com/Pages/Pottery-tips/ceramic-repair-and-restoration-questions-and-answers.htm The 15th-century art of kintsugi, which translated means "golden joinery," reclaims the beauty of a damaged object. It all began when the Japanese tea ceremony, Chanoyu, became popular. Legend holds that a Japanese shogun so wanted his broken Chinese tea bowl repaired that he sent it to China to be fixed. He was dismayed at the metal stitches used to piece it back together and asked local craftsmen to mend it. The result was a stunning new piece that emerged from the fragments, with golden seams tracing the places where the bowl had cracked. The art form uses lacquer, mixed with a precious metal like

My father was an expert woodsman, spending a lot of time, hunting, fishing, cutting wood, and exploring. He frequently took me out and tried to get me lost in the woods. When he was thoroughly sure I was lost, he'd say close your eyes, and he'd spin me around 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 times just to be sure I wasn't pointed in the same direction when I opened my eyes. Then he'd say, great, find your way back to the car or the house. It was a game for him, as he knew how to navigate by stars and the sun in the sky, also using other way points, looking for tracks, all without a compass and long before GPS. I learned and, truth be told, I got pretty damn good at it. Then I got schooled on "situational awareness," which then was also taught to me by military servicemen and professional officials in various camps. They had you memorize everything in a classroom, what the teacher was wearing, whether he had jewelry on, what brands, what was in the bathroom including how many stalls or sinks, what the billboards on the drive in to the class, what vehicles you saw, everything. I got pretty damned good at that too. I think that in my life I’ve also overestimated the value of not getting lost. A person can be too cautious, can play it too safe, can put too much pressure on himself to avoid taking risks. And thus you lose part of yourself---that is the belief and trust in one’s own problem-solving ability. I have tried to impart that into my daughter using many of the same methods my father used, while we