Pond Boss Forums INTRO Bob Lusk's blog January...another one for the books.

I must say we live an interesting life. We never really know what might happen. I look at it kind of like riding a wave. Here it comes, let's ride and see where it goes.
When we last left you, it was early December. The entire month was a whirlwind of family, friends, blessings and celebration.

During the month, I got to do several fun things, scattered around family events. Yes, I did make the rounds of clients, but here's a couple of things you'll enjoy.


Shot another TV show with O'Neill Williams. It was a cold, blustery two days at Richmond Mill Lake near Laurel Hill, North Carolina. O'Neill's guest was legendary BASS angler and former BassMaster's Classic winner, Davy Hite. Both of these guys are gentlemen, down to earth good people.


Davy Hite, O'Neill Williams and...Bob Lusk


The guys, ready to hit the water. Cold day, that one. Lower 20's


But, yes, they did catch fish. It's what they do.


Davy and I...his boat.

After the week in North Carolina, doing what I do, it was time to fly home and prepare for Christmas. Queen Debbie met me near the airport and we headed for client Lee Roy & Tandy Mitchell's home...where Debbie had lined up a limo to capture us for dinner and an evening to look at Christmas lights.


Then, the next morning, we headed to Arlington, to the studios of radio station WBAP, a blowtorch 50,000 watt powerhouse to do an hour of radio with John Krause and Rebecca Miller on their Living Natural First program. I really enjoy doing radio.


Rebecca Miller and I...

The week following Christmas, I hunkered down and started working on March-April Pond Boss. Got it wrapped up, edited, written and sent to layout pretty fast...it went to layout guru Jim Stroud around January 5.


When we publish a recipe, I like to try to cook and eat it, first. Plus, I always need photos. This time, we took some tilapia raised here at LL,2, grilled it, and made fish tacos. Really good. Recipe will be in the March-April issue.

Next, focused exclusively on the program for Pond Boss IV Conference & Expo. We have an exciting and fun program lined up for everyone. If you haven't registered, yet, please get 'er done...we'll need a head count for all the food pretty quickly. We'll get that program on the website as soon as Gayle pretties it up.

Next....

This winter has been a fairly typical Texas one. We've had three snow events. Today, we have snow on the ground and the low was 6..not quite as typical. Earlier in January, the grandkids got to play like our northern friends do...except our sled was not quite as nice.



I did spend some time looking over one the domains in which I have some charge. These does let me drive pretty close and then they do what they do...bolted for the safety of nearby woods.

Later during that same day, I was looking at the lakes on that ranch and saw a glimmer of gray in the grass. I knew what it was, the day was pleasant and I didn't remember ever taking a picture of one of those Texas icons...the armadillo..or, as my dad used to call it, "possum on the half-shell." I was there by myself, chuckling. Watch what happens.



It was minding its own business. I stopped the truck, climbed out, crunched through the weeds and got a little closer. And then....



...it got a whiff of Pond Boss. Stood up as high as it could. I stood still. They can't see very well, but they can hear and smell quite well. I waited, the critter started rooting around, making quite a bit of noise, itself. I crept closer. It stopped, I stopped. It moved, I moved closer.



Then, I got down on one knee and kept shooting pictures. I started giggling inside. The darn thing was coming right at me.



I clicked a few more images and then lowered the camera to ground level. Only got one shot. It got so close my camera wouldn't focus. It actually nudged the camera after this picture.



Then, it started digging under my foot. I couldn't stand it any more. Grabbed the little creature by its tail. Scared the doo-doo out of it...literally. That's a strong little toot. I let him go, he headed for safety, never knowing what in the world just happened.

The second week of January, Lister Harrell, from Eastman, Georgia and his CEO Don Watts, from South Carolina, visited LL,2 to see what we've done, get some ideas and brainstorm for his property on the east coast. There's only one Lister. The man is a roiling dynamo, a vortex of energy fueled by his nature and Red Bull. Well...one thing led to another and pretty soon, Lister had invited us to tag along to the left coast with him.
From our house, the two men headed to the SHOT Show in Las Vegas. Then, the next weekend, Queen Debbie and met up with them in Orange County, California for two and a half jet-fueled days. I get tired just thinking about it.
The main mission was to meet with executives at Oakley. Lister, in the past, has been one of their leading dealers, selling those sunglasses and other products like a madman. We toured the Oakley facility, tried on glasses, bought a few things and learned...a lot. Oakley is definitely a lifestyle.


Lister and our tour guide. Here, we're in a simulated lab, where they show people how they test their sunglasses. They have a patented material that is shatterproof. I was duly impressed with the quality of the product. They don't outsource their production. They do it on site. 1500 employees there.



Debbie checked out the museum. Oakley started in the 70's manufacturing bicycle handlebar grips. My son, Ty, bought some in the early 80's.



The building is something out of the future. Lister told me it's one of only a handful of nuclear-proof buildings in the world. Inside, it is themed the same as what you see behind Debbie.



Oh, and you can't go to California without making a pass through an In-N-Out Burger. Double-Double, Animal Style, with mustard, please.

In the midst of the trip, Lister informed us he had won a big amount of money while in Las Vegas and he was determined to spend a lot of it. I looked at Debbie, she looked at me...we just smiled and shook our heads. We don't quite know how to live like that.

At the hotel bar, Lister spied a bottle of something he wanted to see closer. When the bartender showed him, my liquor lesson curve spiked. It was a bottle of Remy Martin Louis XIII Cognac...about 1/3 full. The bartender smirked a little bit at Lister and his tie-dyed t-shirt and shorts without a belt and told him, "It's $150 per shot." Lister said, "I want it." He pulled out his iPhone, clicked, typed, spent about three minutes and then said, "I want the whole bottle." And then, "Do you have the box it came in?" The bartender, a bit startled, said, "I'll find it." Well, we each shared some of this high dollar stuff. After the bartender departed, Lister smiled and said, "I just looked on eBay...I can sell the bottle for $400-500".
To him, it was an investment. But, either way you look at it, he bought about $800 worth of Cognac, helped drink it, so he could have the bottle.
It was smooth...not that I'm an expert. But, I savored it. Probably one of those once-in-a-lifetime events.

Last weekend, we had another fun event. Founding editor of Pond Boss, Mark McDonald, had emailed me last summer. Seems he was building a backyard pavilion to cover his outdoor kitchen at home in Midland, Texas. He was asking about using native cedar to cover the cut limestone pillars he had built earlier in the summer. I emailed him..."Let's just cut and mill what you need."
He was a bit skeptical.
I assured him we could do it.
Over the next few months, we emailed, talked on the phone and planned. He had a hard time trying to understand just exactly what we might do and how we might do it. I tried to give him some confidence that we could do it. After all, two guys and I had cut, milled and planed wood from more than 180 trees as we built our house.
I assured him it would be fun.


Mark sent a hand drawing of what he wanted to do.



Well, we set the date for last weekend.
Our Pond Boss buddy, 86 year old fly fishing fanatic and fly tying expery George Glazener, called me about two weeks ago. Seems his son, Jeff, is interested in acquiring a sawmill himself. I invited Jeff to come along and see what we do, and help. He was fantastic. I'm not sure we would have finished if it weren't for Jeff.
McDonald arrived at 9 last Saturday and by noon we were in the woods, picking out trees to accomplish our goals. Here are some photos.




We chose two trees. The first was a bit smaller than this one. But, this one was fun, too. It took us the better part of three hours to get it on the ground. It didn't want to fall, it lodged against several other trees. We trimmed, cut, pulled with a tractor and finally got it on the ground.











That single tree yielded the following: Two rough beams, about 5" thick, 12" wide and 19 feet long; 6 boards, 1"x 12" x 19 feet; 4 more boards, 1"x 12"x 5-6 feet long and a chunk of wood that Jeff took home to make a beautiful fireplace mantel.


Here's the beams, rustic and rough, like he wanted.



Then, on Sunday, we went back to the woods, found some tall, straight, small cedars to cut his "latilla's" which will be anchored across the top of his beams.

He headed home in time to beat this ice/snow storm, pleased and happy. Not many people out there who can point up at that creation and say, "I had a hand in cutting those trees, milling the wood and building it.

Mark can...just like he can say he's the guy who started our favorite magazine.

Enjoy and seize your moments!