Snow is Here

Here we are on the Oregon coast and it’s snowing.  It’s not supposed to do that here, but it is. Not much is sticking but enough so you can see it.

We let out the dogs this morning and they went nuts; they are not used to snow and they love it. They were chasing each other around the yard like maniacs.  The Beagle (Logger) was chasing his buddie (Freddie Bear) one of our Labs and the Lab had to slow down so Logger could catch up.  They were barking their heads off having a great time and rolling in the snow.

I love to watch them when they are chasing each other around in the back, we have a couple of acres that you can see in the back.  I can watch them go crazy all around the backyard. The other dogs we have (two more Labs) all get involved and it’s really fun to watch.  Fortunately we live in an area that doesn’t get very cold and snows very seldom and we can get in the car and go for thirty minutes and get into the snow when we want to. 

My faux son Austin lives in Alaska and it gets down to twenty below some of the time and one of my other sons, Seth, is also up in Alaska where he fishes for a living so we get to hear all about mucho cold weather all of the time, that’s close enough for me.  I used to not mind the cold weather, but unless I am hunting or doing something that keeps me moving or jumping around I just don’t like it much.  Nowadays I get to wear my parka and long-johns to keep warm.

We just got back from the Archery Trade Association Show in Indiana and the weather was about 12 or 13 degrees as an average low temp, with highs up to the low 20’s.  Back in Myrtle Point, while the temps are so low, we moved the cat and dog beds into the house.  It’s a thrill during feeding time with the barking and meowing not to mention us trying to get some chow in our faces, but it’s fun.

It was fun at the ATA show, we got to show off our new products.  The carbon arrows Rose City Archery is selling really caught a few peoples eyes.  Of all of the new products we’ve introduced I like the footed shafts best, it’s really an opportunity to show off the talent we have working here. Our craftsman’s main objective is to put more weight forward in the arrow, this provides more energy in the shaft for more “killing power”.  It’s amazing to see how much more force is imparted in the arrow when you add that extra weight in the front part of the arrow.  Of course there are other ways to put some extra weight forward but they aren’t near as efficient as the footed arrow.  Plus they look great and fly super true so if you have some talent with the bow you can have more efficient and better arrow flight; actually footed shafts will make a better archer out of the person behind the bow.

We also have the Lumenoks that we are able to attach to a wood arrow; what this does is the nock end of the arrow lights up when you shoot the arrow so that you can tract the flight of your arrow and see where your point of impact is with the shot you just made.  If you are hunting you are able to see where the point of impact is and where that arrow strikes the animal. You’re able to track the animal by this light, it is something that makes you more efficient in recovering an animal after you have made the shot.  I believe this is a wonderful innovation in the archery world helping with the recovery of an animal.  Especially if you are tracking that animal after dark, battery life is good for forty hours so you have a decent period of time after the shot to recover the animal.

Rose City Archery is producing what we call “Carbon Footed aka Fusions” where we attach a carbon extension to the wood shaft, this allows the archer to be able to use any of the screw in attachments that are available to carbon arrow shooters.  This includes all of the different broadheads and other points that won’t fit on wood arrows.  Another new product we have re-introduced is RCA tapered shafts.   This allows the archer to use an 11/32 or 23/64 shaft and be able to use a 5/16 nock, which a lot of folks think they have better control of the arrow with the taper and the smaller nock.  New for 2017 is our extra long shafts, archers who have that 32” plus draw length found it difficult to find wood shafts long enough for their draw, we have provided the solution.  We have what you need and we want to make your archery experience better.  We have more new stuff coming soon so keep your eyes on this Blog and the newsletter for updates.

Thanks for listening and good shooting,

Jerry Dishion

PRES/CEO

 

A Day of Reckoning

It looks like just another day, I get up, have a
cuppa, eat a little breakfast and I’m off to work.  I have a date set in my mind of what day it is.  I’m cheerfully going along with my lovely wife and when we get to work about an hour late, the wife tells me her clock is screwed up and it was reading in Daylight Savings Time.  So I figure we’re both screwed up today, no worries mate.  We walk in and one of the girls tells my wife “Happy Birthday”, Oh crap I’m in for it now I didn’t even say the “Happy Birthday” thing because I was a day off and thought her big day was tomorrow.  Not to mention I hadn’t even gotten a card or ordered some flowers (which I always do).  Now every one’s going Happy Birthday all over the place and I’m feeling about 6” tall.  Naturally some jerk has to ask what did Jerry get you for the big day? Guess what?  Jerry didn’t get her anything because Jerry forgot all about it, which if the truth were known would probably make her happy.  You know how you girls are after you hit 40.  So if I’m not able to get a nice big present like the “Hope Diamond” or something like that it’s best to keep totally quiet.

I’m thinking how do I get out of here so I can at least get some flowers or something.  No candy, can’t have calories, can’t be clothing because I’d never get anything right, I’ve tried.  So flowers
and a card it is, I just have to lie my way out of here for a few minutes and I figure out the perfect ruse, I blurt it out and off I go; yippee I’m free.  I zip down to the flower store and it’s out of business, great, I guess enough husbands forgot the wife’s birthday and they went under.
At least I know where to get a card and I go there, look and look in the rack and finally find three
out of a thousand cards that are for “Wife’s Birthday”.  Lucky me, one is just sloppy enough that she’ll like it.  I get to the counter and tell the clerk my tale of woe and she tells me there is a new flower store right up the street and I go and they have beautiful flowers roses; her favorite and accompanying other stuff (accoutrements) to go along with the roses, Woo Hoo; I’m saved.  They will deliver too so I don’t have to carry the flowers with me, they will do it for no extra charge.  It don’t get no better. I sign the card and drop it off at the house and zoom back to the office. Not too bad I was only gone for about thirty minutes.

We go home for lunch and she finds the card and Happy, Happy, Happy.  Come back to work and the flowers get delivered so I’m back in good graces.

It just shows you how it goes.  But a little bit of fancy footwork and my wife is a happy camper.

Ride That Tiger

A couple of years ago I walked out in back of the mill and heard some noise coming from the back of one of the buildings on our property.  It’s kind of amazing I heard anything as the mill was running full blast and is pretty noisy around here when that happens.  I recall it was raining (can you imagine, in Oregon!) and I went over to investigate to see what in the hell it was. When I got to the back of the building I dug through the brush piles and came up with two baby kittens in a box meowing their cute little heads off.  Being the old softy I am I brought them into the office to show them to my wife and the other folks in the office.  Naturally we all stopped work for a while so everyone could “googoo and awwwww shucks” over the little guys.
Next I have to go get Martin who is our resident cat lover and has taken many kitties home to clean up and give away to his neighbors and relatives.  It seems like he has an endless supply of folks and relatives to give these cats to.  He is very careful who he gives the cats too and always tells us who is taking them off his hands, either that or he has a houseful of cats, Martin loves cats, his wife not so much.  OK, now he thinks I am going to give him these little monsters to get rid of, AhHa he is wrong.  We have a mouse problem here and I figure we can let these little guys loose here and give them some food and they will rid us of the mouse problem and I am right (after all I am the Boss, so I have to be right, right?).  So I make the executive decision to keep the cats for mouse patrol.  It works out pretty good and the cats grow up and they’re munching up on the mice… I even find mouse “corpses” on my desk (taken over bait?) as a present when it’s not even my birthday or Christmas or any special occasion. All of this is OK with me because we no longer have a mouse problem, you can actually put down your lunch and not have to re-inspect for mouse droppings or even a live critter hoping around in there which has happened a couple of times.  I mean we had a mouse invasion here, it was nothing to walk in and see the mouse’s scattering like cockroaches when the light comes on.  But the kitties are getting fat and happy, plus the mouse problem is under control.  If you think real hard you can guess the next line in this progression, everyone seems to be happy except the mice and guess what?
Well the ladies in the office decide we are being cruel to the mice by turning them into cannon fodder to the cats.  What?  “You can now eat your lunch in piece, it’s safe from the mice cause there ain’t no mice, at least inside which is all I care about.”  Plus we have these cute little cats hanging around, laying on your desk and purring at you, snuggling up to you and all in all making the office and the whole plant a happier and healthier place for us all. Except we now have a problem with some folks thinking we are being mean to the mice, sorry girls, live with it!
A couple of weeks ago we come in and the arrow production people are in a turmoil, one of the cats has been murdered and there it is curled up on the floor bleeding and basically yelling her head off.  So off I go in a panic to the vets and he says well this critter has been in a fight with a bobcat and lost, but she got away and came back.  Crap Doc how much is this going to cost, he tells me and I collapse, but my wife convinces me to get the cat fixed.  I am telling you this animal looks bad, she’s got blood coming out of a few orifices that didn’t used to be there, but she looks pretty pathetic and as I said before I am a softy.  So I tell the Doc OK go for it.  We have to leave the cat there and come back in a couple of days and see what’s up. So we do and when we come back we have a one eared bald cat and the Doc says he is not sure if this critter is going to make it.  Well that was 3 weeks ago and here she is getting back to being fat and happy.  We of course are broke, but what the hell we were broke before so those things haven’t changed much.

Why am I telling you folks all of this? I just wanted to show you what the instinct for survival can do, this little guy was well on her way to being a Bobcats lunch and she fought her way out and got back here to us and survived.  The Vet calls her the miracle cat, he was sure she was history, but she wasn’t ready and fought back and now she is getting right back to her old self.  When you look at the pictures here you

Don’t see the half of it.  She had her whole head bandaged, and her stomach wrapped because she had claw and tooth marks all over her head and neck, back, just everywhere and had to have many stiches to close up the holes.  She looked like she just came back from a part in a Zombie movie.  She used to live here at the plant, but now she lives with us until she is full back on her feet then we’ll bring her back permanently, I’m just afraid she will get outside in the bushes and meet up with the monster who caused all the trauma.  She “Rode That Tiger” and came out on the other end. So we bring her in every day to visit with her sister and the crew who are all her buddies.

Now that I think of it we do have a few things to do with Rose City to drop in your thought pattern….. Maybe I can get you thinking of RCA and what’s new here. We are just putting the finishing touches on some new things. We now make Footed Shafts and they’ll be available starting Nov. 1, 2016.  Also, we will have wood arrows with Lumenok lighted nocks.  Last but not least we now carry carbon shafting and we offer them in all of the styles that we offer wood and at the same prices as an introductory offer.  Also the Carbons will be available as Bear Arrows as well, Bear Archery has decided to allow us to produce Carbons with the Bear logo on them and that we are very proud of.  So check out our site and take a look at our new stuff, I think you’ll like it.

Thanks for listening,

Jerry