Fly Tying: Prep and Tidying Up

I am a messy tier. Recently, I decided to tie some unweighted Woolly Buggers, mostly in the traditional earth (under water) tones. I had dark olive, light olive, brown, mottled brown and black marabou with the comparable hackle and sparkle chenilles, oh and the varied hooks.

As the days progressed, I tied with each color and combinations of colors but what I did was fail to stay with one pattern and tie enough of them and then put all those materials away and then go to the next color scheme. Instead, I mixed and matched and experimented and buried myself in marabou etc. Throw in the fact that Penny the Cat finagled her paws into a ziplock back and seized a Hoffman Chickaboo cape and a disaster ensued.  

I have been tying for a long time. This is silly stuff, that should be worked through after a couple seasons, but again the ‘get organized and prepped in advance’ admonition proves itself again.

Above, I have prepped the hooks and beads for some weighted Woolly Buggers. And, I am going to only pull from the ziplock bags the exact colors for the tail, body, hackle for each flight of Buggers. Think ahead, plan, tie and put away what you don’t need out for the next pattern.

 Oh, head cement. I had so much crap on the table top, I momentarily buried an open jar of head cement. I found it, as it tumbled over onto a nice dyed, barred grizzly half cape. What a weekend! Regrouping, lesson learned…again.

Russian Scientist: O.C.D. Not A.D.D.

“The plant in this picture dates from the Pleistocene Age, 30,000 years ago, before agriculture, before writing, before the end of the last Ice Age. And while it’s not accurate to say the plant itself is that old, scientists in Russia say they regenerated it from frozen cells they found beneath 125 feet of permafrostin what is now northeastern Siberia.”

Ice Age Plant Revived

“The squirrels dug the frozen ground to build their burrows, which are about the size of a soccer ball, putting in hay first and then animal fur for a perfect storage chamber,” said Stanislav Gubin, one of the authors of the study, who spent years rummaging through the area for squirrel burrows.” 

“The plant is of the species Silene stenophylla, and radiocarbon dating says it is 31,800 years old, plus or minus 300 years. The Russian scientists were able to grow it in a conventional pot, and after a year of tender loving care, they say it blossomed, bore fruit, and dropped seeds. It lived, in other words, as if there had never been a 30,000-year interruption.” (more) (more)