MYOG

The Making of “The Penguin” Hiking Stick

My youngest son outgrew his original hiking stick with the cool orange Turk’s Head wrap. For his replacement, he chose an aspen branch trimmed from a tree in our front yard. With him being the stubborn kid that he is, he insisted that I leave a section of another branch at the top of the […]

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Stealing My Kids’ Toys For Bikepacking Gear

by Andy Amick

Sometimes the kids and their toys have to make sacrifices, even if they aren’t aware of the sacrifice at the time. While doing more tinkering with gear and my bikepacking setup, I realized the foam ammo balls my kids shoot at each other would make a great end cap for my tarp pole. The tarp […]

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Homemade Tyvek Wallet – 2 1/2 Years Later

by Andy Amick

When looking for a new wallet, not many people look at an envelope as an option. Ok, there may only be a handful of us crazy enough to actually think this. But a single Tyvek envelope can be transformed into an everyday wallet and hold up to daily wear and tear for over two years. […]

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Hiking Stick With Two Color Paracord Wrap

by Andy Amick

Earlier this year, my kids and I made hiking sticks with paracord wrapped handles. This post details the steps taken to make an aspen hiking stick with a basic wrap for the handle. The details of the aspen turks head and maple spiral hitched sticks were published in earlier posts. My kids chose the paracord […]

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Toothpaste Dots Are Not My Friend

by Andy Amick

Or as my kids would say – Epic fail!! Making the dots was easy, but actually using them for toothpaste was the hard part. Some experiments in lightening your camping setup result in failures and that’s ok. They either become too lightweight and don’t hold up, or they are too uncomfortable. For this attempt, the […]

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Hiking Stick With Paracord Spiral Hitched Handle

by Andy Amick

My sons and I have each made hiking sticks from limbs that I trimmed in the yard. My kids used aspen and mine was made from a maple branch. Each stick used a different paracord wrap and somehow my kids were able to choose different ones without arguing about which design was better. Amazing. My […]

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Repackage Toothpaste Into Smaller Containers

by Andy Amick

When designing the OutThere kits, I worked really hard and spent countless hours to find items that would make the kit as small as possible. But somehow the fact that a full travel tube of toothpaste was included instead of a smaller amount escaped me. A travel size tube is more than enough for at […]

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MYOG – Coroplast Seat Bag

by Andy Amick

This is a follow-up to the Political Sign post to show the detailed steps of how to make a custom bikepacking seat bag from all of those signs that will be taking over yards and roadsides during this election season. Overall cost for the bag is under $15 with most of the cost coming from […]

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Finally, A Good Use For Political Signs

by Andy Amick

It’s election season again and we are beginning to see some yards that resemble this: Or worse: I’m not a political strategist, but I think the second one is a yard full of junk and won’t lead to any votes for any of these candidates. But all is not wasted if the candidate’s supporters choose […]

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Goofy Gear Day – Tyvek Wallet

by Andy Amick

Are you one of those guys that carries a wallet that’s over stuffed and is thicker than a slice of 7 layer cake? Growing up, my dad’s wallet looked like this one on a good day. My wallet was never that bad, but it had begun to get too bulky. My original desire […]

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