We just received another recall notice on our 2003 Pontiac Vibe…As you recall, we had one not long ago that involved a shorting out of a circuit that could cause the airbags to deploy without notice.  Luckily for us it did not happen before we could get our friend Crock to fix it at Axtell Chevrolet in Logan.  Life has been good up until todays mail was opened.

Sherry read the recall notice and said “It’s the same old one”…and tossed the paper to me.

I read it and it’s different.  Still involving the air bags, but only on the passenger side and only if we get into a crash powerful enough to cause the airbag to deploy.

This recall says that my “vehicle is equipped with a front passenger airbag inflator which could have been assembled with improperly manufactured propellant wafers.  Improperly manufactured propellant wafers could cause the inflator to rupture and the front passenger airbag to deploy abnormally in the event of a crash, increasing the risk of injury to the occupant”.

So, if I get into a crash the airbag could be deployed with such a violent explosion (the one that fills it with air) to actually cause the airbag to blow up…like a balloon when it pops…which then would cause my passenger to essentially not have an airbag in their face, or worse yet, to get the full blast right in their face.

What are my alternatives?  Not drive.  Be dang careful when I do drive.  And always be on constant alert for “the other guy”.  At least this recall give me a chance at driving without a sudden and violent burst of an airbag in my face without warning.  If I do get into a crash at least I can reasonably hope my car had a “properly manufactured propellant wafer installed”.

Oh, and it says they don’t have the parts available to fix the problem.

Bears Butt

June 20, 2013

A lot of you are bow and arrow shooters and I need to get this word out as quickly as I can so that you can safely shoot your arrows and not worry about injury to yourself or a friend.

Recall Date: June 19, 2013
Recall Number: 13-220

Axis Arrows Recalled by Easton Due to Injury Hazard

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Consumers should stop using this product unless otherwise instructed. It is illegal to resell or attempt to resell a recalled consumer product.

Recall Summary

Name of Product: Easton Axis arrows

Hazard: The arrows can break when fired and hit unintended targets, including the user and bystanders.

Remedy: Replace

Consumer Contact:  Easton Technical Products; toll-free at (888) 380-6234 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or online at www.eastonarchery.com and click on Axis Recall for more information or go to www.axisrecall.com.

Recall Details

Units: 20,700 in the United States and 1,800 in Canada

Description: This recall involves Easton Axis arrows in four different sizes and batch numbers, including size 300 with batch number 13169686, size 340 with batch number 13170143, size 400 with batch number 13170142 and size 500 with batch number 13169487. The carbon composite arrows are used for hunting and target archery. They are black with green and gray-colored graphics. Axis, Focused Energy, Easton, the size number and the batch number are printed on the arrows.

Incidents/Injuries: None reported

Remedy: Consumers should stop using the recalled arrows immediately and contact Easton to receive free replacement arrows.

Sold at: Archery specialty stores and Academy Sports, Bass Pro, Cabela’s, Gander Mountain and Scheels stores nationwide from February 2013 through May 2013 for about $154 per dozen.

Manufacturer: Easton Technical Products Inc., of Salt Lake City, Utah

Manufactured in: United States

Photos available at http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Recalls/2013/Axis-Arrows-Recalled-by-Easton/
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Bears Butt

June 20, 2013

Black Arrow News:

Just got word he is being released from the hospital this afternoon!  This is super good news and I hope the change to home boosts his efforts to get well!

Bears Butt

June 19, 2013

POOPIE!  I just talked with Karen and the doctors want to see him eat solid foods better than he has been before they release him.  So the plan is to let him go tomorrow (Thursday)…at least it’s talk in the right direction!  Going Home!

Bears Butt

Update

I have been shooting almost all my life and over the past 10 years or more have noticed a very big problem with my hearing.  I also have a bad time with wax building up in my ears…I went to the doctor once and he dug out what he called “It looks like a boy”!  Of course he was joking, but the wax blob he pulled out was huge!  No wonder I couldn’t hear out of that ear.  I went to the doctor about a year ago with the same non hearing ear and he flushed it out with a high pressure washer and told me to take an aspirin and don’t bother coming back..(joking)…I could hear very well after that “soaking”.

Today I was looking at my emails and I’m on a mailing list for sports related discounts from highly reputable companies…maybe these items are seconds, but so what, if the price is right…right?  Check out the Camofire.com website sometime.

The item of the day that caught my eye this morning was the Walkers Game Ear Alpha Power Ear Muffs…Knowing nothing about them, I went to my world wide.  Well the power ear muffs are definitely something a shooter should look into for hearing protection,  they are designed to boost your hearing ability by 5 times but more importantly, they block out the noise caused by a sudden blast, like a shotgun or rifle going off.  Good stuff right there to help protect your hearing.

But the reason I’m writing about all of this is not what I found in the shooting sports arena, but more importantly for us hard of hearing people that are all over the world.  I have not investigated into a hearing aid for myself.  I watched my aging mother go through trials and tribulations trying to get fitted for hearing aids only to see them sitting on the counter not being used.  She spent thousands of dollars on those things and didn’t use them.

One of my older brothers now wears hearing aids and boy howdy did he ever need them…HUH?…and…SAY IT AGAIN!…was his favorite words…now he just turns off the unit when he doesn’t want to hear what you are saying.  But the best is, when he has it on, he just carries on a normal conversation and HUH and SAY IT AGAIN are not usually in that conversation.

I also have another good friend who wears a hearing aid and I won’t mention his name on here because I’m not sure he knows I know about it…His is a very discreetly hidden one and I must say it is one of the smallest and well hidden I’ve ever seen.

So, here I go investigating those hearing enhancing and noise muffling ear muffs and I come across other hearing devises made for the outdoor enthusiasts.  Since going turkey hunting a few weeks ago and having the Weasel tell me about sounds he is hearing and I never heard them, I have been thinking about something to assist me while hunting.  Of course affordability is always a concern with me and CHEAP fits my bill usually, but then quality is something to consider as well.  If I was to pick up something to help me hear those tip toe sounds in the woods I would insist on a high quality devise.  Looking on the internet is pretty much free and so here I went looking at the different ones.

I came across one called the “Walkers Game Ear Elite Digital HD Pro 2 Beige Assisted Listening Device”…a very long name for a game hearing devise, with no real way to make an acronym out of that made any sense………. (WGEEDHDP2BALD).  I got to reading about them and their sales writeup is very impressive…many settings for increased and decreased volumn…reduced wind noise…little to no “white noise” (whatever that is)…and an all around good devise for a medium price tag ($150 or so).  This little guy fits around the outside of the ear and the ear bud sticks into your ear channel to help you hear.  One size fits all.  It appears to be quite small and in the pictures of people wearing them they look comfortable and probably wouldn’t fall out.

So, I saw on one site where there were a ton of reviews and the average review rating was 4 out of 5…I clicked on there to read some of the reviews and what I found was amazing to me…Almost every review was from people with hearing issues buying them for every day use…not hearing the tippy toes noises out in the woods.  These people are city folks and country folks who just want to hear what is being said to them…one lady even put the review on because it was saving her marriage, buy her husband not having to have the TV up so loud.  Almost every review said that they had gone to a hearing doctor and spent thousands of dollars on expensive testing and hearing aids, revisiting and being counseled on “getting used to the extra noise” they were hearing etc. etc. but the main complaint was the cost…upwards of $8,000 in one case…and on top of that having to buy insurance to protect against losing the hearing aid.

When you look at doctors visits and spending that kind of cash for hearing aids, it sure makes spending $150 on one and getting the job done without all the extra problems associated with doctor visits and all the BS that goes with that.

Hey boys can’t you guys come up with $75 each to cover the expense of one of these for the old man?  Huh?  What did you say?  I can’t hear you!

Bears Butt

June 10, 2013

I just remembered to call Cover Up Embroidery about the possibility of them providing me with a hat for the 4th of July blackpowder shoot!  This year to win the hat you are going to have to be an excellent shot or dang lucky!

When I called them, Kim answered the phone and it’s always a pleasure to talk to her…so upbeat and happy…heck all of the owners and/or employees are that way.  A great bunch to work with.

They have been creating the shirts, hats, bags and other things for the Willow Creek Free Trappers for over 20 years now and they do an excellent job.  When there is a “normal” order for our shirts it gets really complicated, what with colors, sizes, styles, big logo on the front, small logo on the front, big logo on the back, no logo, pockets on the t shirts, sleeveless or with sleeves…it goes on and on and on.  But somehow they figure it all out and have been excellent in providing just what was ordered.

So, when I asked if they would provide a hat for this years 4th of July shoot…the answer was a joyful…”Sure!”…Thank you guys very much!  Some lucky person is going to win that hat.  Is that going to be you?  If it is, you had best be filing down your sights and getting your powder charge measured to the “nth degree”, because the shoot is not going to be easy!  Think small!  I mean, almost not even visible small!

Bears Butt

June 17, 2013

I just got a call from the Weasel…we are in for the Utah antlerless elk drawing.  Both of us have 3 points and that should just about guarantee us a tag!

Go baby Go!

Bears Butt

June 14, 2013

This morning finds the old Bears Butt waiting for Sherry to get home from a meeting at her work place…todays meeting is one that surprised almost all the employees of the local redneck culture store “Smith and Edwards”.  I suppose at this time I should tell you about this store, some of you might not have ever heard of it.

Smith and Edwards started out just after World War II as a War Surplus store.  A dream of one Mr. Smith and another Mr. Edwards.  After the war there were tons and tons of items that had been made in preparation to supply the troops, things like helmets, canteens, knives, uniforms, blankets, mess kits, cans of canned heat, C-rations (food), sleeping cots, medical items…the list goes on and on and on and on, and because the war was over, the government needed someplace to dispose of all this good stuff.  So along came Mr. Smith and Mr. Edwards and bought a bunch of it up and made it available for sale.  As a youngster in the middle 50’s, it was my favorite store of all.  For just a couple of bucks I could come out of there with a whole bag full of “necessary items” to meet my outdoors and scouting needs.

Smith and Edwards sign says “We have everything you want…If we can find it”, and believe me, they have a lot of things in there that makes you wonder why they have it, and if by chance you go in there for something and you can’t seem to find it, don’t give up, keep looking because somebody else may have picked one up and set it down in another department.  Just keep looking.

Today they don’t have so much war surplus, but they still have the department that carries a lot of that sort of thing, it is made up of surplus military stuff from many countries, not just the U.S.  They even have an outside lot full of old trucks and trailers used to transport troops and gear.  Plus, a ton of other stuff that they have gathered up over the years, everything from pipe to baskets.  The outside lot is worth wandering around looking at even if you have no need for any of it.  You will see some things that will make you scratch your head and wonder just what it is and what it could have possibly been used for.

A few years back, at a company party, one of the boss’ was giving a speech and said he liked to listen to the customers and when he heard a good statement he would write it down…this particular year he overheard a “one sided” conversation from a lady on a cell phone…here is how part of it went…”Well, I’m here in Smith and Edwards…what was that?….Oh, well, it’s sort of hard to say…I guess the best way to describe it is…It’s an Ikea for Rednecks”!!!!

That should give you some idea about what this store is all about.

Well, they are about to go HIGH TECH on us…yessireee bobby…they have created a new department and have hired a lady to run it…they are going “On line” and soon you will be able to purchase goods from them.  This means they will be expanding and adding a shipping department and who knows what else.

So todays meeting is about “customer service”…at least that is what Sherry has been lead to believe…we will find out when she gets back…in the meantime I have prepared a little breakfast for her when she gets home.  Sausage patties, fried potatoes from diced baked potato leftovers from the other night and when she gets home I’ll fry up an egg, pour up some milk for her and orange juice for me and there you have it…breakfast.

With some time on my hands I came in here to write up what you have been reading and I got curious just what other people eat for breakfast.  It was quite interesting what I came across…Breakfast in the South…Now I have tried Grits before and I just could not get the hankering for their taste and texture, but I won’t bad mouth them, they just were not something for me.  Most of the breakfasts I found on line include them but the most curious is some of the other things I saw that are cooked up for breakfast in the South…Biscuits and gravy…yummy to me…I could eat that!  Batter fried chicken gizzards…Oh Ya!  That would be good!  Corned Beef Hash…Had that and it’s super good, especially served with catchup!  Country fried steak…Great stuff right there…!Country ham!  That speaks for itself!  Cracklins.   Maybe for a snack.  Fatback…I’m not sure about that…never tried it.  Fried pork chops…I could do that every morning!  Hog head cheese and/or hog jowls….Naaa!  It just don’t sound right to me…especially for breakfast…I think I’d rather have a bowl of grits.

Some of the other things I found on the breakfast menu seems more to be an afternoon or evening meal to me, but I suppose if it meets your fancy go for it.

Fried chicken, fried squirrel, fried frog legs, Salmon patties and  deep fried fish….They all sound great, but I’d rather face a frog leg later in the day myself.

One thing I didn’t see on the breakfast menu for Southern style eating was pizza…That will come soon enough.

Bears Butt

June 11, 2013

A heart felt THANK YOU to Dry Dog, Wapiti and Weasel for the huge help in  finishing our task for today.  Helping hands helping out where we could.

Dry Dog, I really feel badly that you went your direction so quickly and missed our stopping at a local establishment for a bite to eat.  I owe you one.

So, we did stop into a local place today and had a cold drink and a wonderful hamburger and some home made fries!

Also met a great guy and bartender, a Mr. Lee Jensen, what a great guy and a super cook as well!  Thank you Mr. Jensen!

And the name of the place?  Mims Bar and Grill in Corinne, Utah!

I have not been in that place since it was named something else and that was over 20 years ago.  Wapiti had not been in there since they had a snake skin hanging on the North wall and Weasel hadn’t been in there all his born days.

Some things never change and that is one thing that has only changed because of necessity.  It still looks just like it did back in the day.

Thanks again Lee!

Bears Butt

June 10, 2013

Lately there has been a lot of talk about survival kits and 72 hour kits for emergency use.  Actually, the talk has been going around for many years, but for some reason just recently there seems to be a bigger push. ( Is it because of Obama?)

I went on line looking at survival kits and there is such a wide variety and it’s sort of funny what people are thinking when they put together these kits.  One kit I looked at included a whole bunch of fishing stuff…from the basic hook and line to spinners and flies…loads of different sinkers etc.  As for me, if I was building a survival kit, I “might” have a fishing set up in the kit, but probably not…why take up valuable space and weight for that, when a few more high calorie candy bars would probably get you through the amount of time it would take you to catch a fish (maybe catch a fish).  Perhaps it was that persons idea to just give you something to do while waiting to be rescued…I don’t know.

Then there was the one with the emphasis on first aid.  It has the normal bandage stuff, tape, salves and antibiotic meds, aspirins and ibuprofen etc., but it also had splints, sewing needles and official stitching material thread.  That’s not something I think I would want to be doing out in the field…sewing up someone who has been injured that badly.  I would think it would be better to just keep the wound open and clean rather than sew into it the dirt, tree bark and rocks that were around while the person was getting cut up that bad.

Sure, stop the bleeding, calm them down, keep them relaxed and wait until help arrives.  Again, the space and weight taken up by those types of items should be used for something more useful like maybe “spinners for fishing”…just kidding.  Even a joke book would be better than that…again, in my opinion.

There were several sites that had 5 gallon buckets with toilet lids on them.  I’m sorry folks, but if I was in a survival mode, I would not care one iota about squatting in the open, or finding a bush to get behind while I did my daily daily.  Besides, the weight of the bucket would be better served to be a back pack and/or more high energy bars or drinking water packets.

Survival kits for the car, survival kits for home, survival kits for airplanes, survival kits for the work site, survival kits for camping, survival kits for hiking, survival kits for back country hunting/fishing base camps, survival kits for school, survival kits for you name it.  Each one seems to have some of the same stuff, but each one again has some unique things in them that just don’t seem to make a lot of sense.  Would you rather have a shining mirror or another book of waterproof matches?  With matches you could make a smoking fire to signal with.  Would you rather have a deck of cards or another high energy candy bar and another book of waterproof matches?  You can always entertain yourself when lost by talking to yourself…besides, if you are stranded with another person and wanted to play cards, they wouldn’t because they know you cheat, and to start a game of cards would probably end up with one of you having to need the sewing kit for stitching up the battle scars.  No, give me the candy bar.

Would you rather have a disposable shaving kit and toothbrush with paste, or another roll of toilet paper?   You are supposed to come out of a survival situation looking like Si on Duck Dynasty and your breath smelling like high energy candy bars and not have burdock leaves sticking out the back of your trousers.  Besides, toilet paper makes for a very good “short term” aerial signal when spread out on the ground. (Don’t forget to gather it up just before dark, you might need it in the morning).

Speaking of survival kits, don’t forget to check out http://www.lonetreesurvival.com/

Bears Butt

June 10, 2013

Went to Tenderfoots wedding reception last night and it was a great one.  Normally I don’t really like to attend those sorts of things, but this was a very relaxed one with only a line consisted of the two groups of parents and the young married couple…the rest of the families were all laid back in their spots and greeting people they knew as they came in.  The cheesecake was super too!  Thanks to you all for pulling off a great wedding!  Empty nesters on one side for sure!

While there I talked to Lead Burn and our conversation went to the long range shooting school taught by one of the locals…His school guarantees you will hit your target after 3 days of training and that target will be sitting out at 1,000 yards!  That’s a long shot!

But, Lead Burn said the shells for the 338 rifle you will be shooting costs $5 p/shot!  OUCH!

So, I got up this morning and did some research on bullets for guns I own…my shock was that “if you can find them”, 22 shells are costing over $13 for a box of 50!!!!  WHAT?  Yes!  Over $10 for a box of 50 shells!  I better go clean out the jocky box in my truck before someone rips me off!

I used to think my friend Gattlin was crazy to go to garage sales and buy up all the ammo he could find and he didn’t even have a gun in the caliber he was buying!  A round of this, a half box of that…what the heck was he thinking?  Now I know!  I’ll bet he has enough shells to sell to buy a new 4 wheel drive truck!

I recall a few stories of his about going to a garage sale being put on by a little old lady and the old smoozer Gattlin would slide up along side her, make some kidding remark about getting older and ask her where the old man was…of course his intent was to find out if the old man had died recently and if she had any of his hunting and fishing stuff still in the house….Gattlin is sneeky like that.

When he found out that was the case he would get her to give up some of his nasty old useless guns and ammo, because we all know that guns around the grandkids is a bad deal and he would help her out by taking them all off her hands for say….(let’s not get too carried away, after all she looks like she is pretty well off)…$100…no that’s too much…say $78….And of course that was all he had in his wallet at the time.

So Gattlin would walk away with two bolt action 22’s, a 30-06, a pistol with a holster and a belt full of 45 cal rounds in it, plus since she didn’t have the guns anymore, she would toss in all the bullets she could find in the house…4 1/2 bricks of 22 shells, 1 1/2 boxes of ’06 and some 12 gauge shells kicking around in an old wood box that had written on the outside “Remington” and a flying duck painted on it….”Oh, by the way, I could use that box to carry all this stuff to the truck…do you mind?”    Of course not, deary, here take it….

Gattlin, how can you sleep at night?

Bears Butt

June 9, 2013