How many Highland Athletes are here on XMTS?

**mike landrich** · 27th April 09, 05:34 PM

Originally Posted by BigMikeLV

I see you are in Fredonia. I'm a born and bred Central New Yorker. (Chittenango, NY). I'm already hooked but it may be a month or 3 before I can make it out to the next games.

Smart man, getting out of NYS is a great move. As for the wait until the next games, it gives you a chance to work on your form. Do you have anywhere to practice any of the events?

**BigMikeLV** · 27th April 09, 06:01 PM

Originally Posted by mike landrich

Smart man, getting out of NYS is a great move. As for the wait until the next games, it gives you a chance to work on your form. Do you have anywhere to practice any of the events?

I miss NY all the time. I'll be there in June for a week.

We practice at the local high school. I have the practice "tools", the ones made of chain as mentioned in the make your own practice tools thread. Only thing I don't have is a caber.

**Detroitpete** · 28th April 09, 03:22 PM

Originally Posted by BigMikeLV

I miss NY all the time. I'll be there in June for a week.

We practice at the local high school. I have the practice "tools", the ones made of chain as mentioned in the make your own practice tools thread. Only thing I don't have is a caber.

Hey Big Mike,

Check out my post, "Snow melted=first full practice with "The Beast"-with pics!" here on the athletics forum. I made a practice caber out of an 8x8 with minimum work. Just hacked the corners a bit on the bottom few feet.

**Alan H** · 28th April 09, 06:59 PM

Originally Posted by BigMikeLV

I miss NY all the time. I'll be there in June for a week.

We practice at the local high school. I have the practice "tools", the ones made of chain as mentioned in the make your own practice tools thread. Only thing I don't have is a caber.

My "big" caber is a 15 foot 6x6 I got at the local lumber place. I could have left it at 16, but I don't have a roof rack on my truck and the bed is only about 6 1/2 feet long, and well.....

...do the math on the balance point!

Anyway, I took a circular saw and just clipped off the corners on the upper 10 feet. Below that I dug progressively deeper with the saw as I was cutting so that at the bottom I had an almost-perfect octogon, in cross-section, rather than a square. I then went to town on all the bottom 5 feet with a hand plane and a surform plane and a belt sander. It's almost like a real caber, though it's still a bit thick at the bottom!

I painted it with Stanford colors since I knew that during the season Id be leaving it at the University IM fields, and I figured if it was red and white, the groundskeepers would figure that it actually belonged there and wouldn't take it away. Besides, two coats of paint means the thing is pretty weather resistant, and it will last a long time. Total cost was about $45

For my first two seasons all I had was a 12 foot 6 x 6, which I did sort of the same thing to, as I described above. It was pressure treated, so it was bluidy heavy for it's length. It had a big crack in it, so the yard gave it to me for $20. IT' snow cracked all the way through. Someday I'll cut it down and make a planter out of it.