Driving an ATV is exhilarating. It can also be quite dangerous, especially for the novice rider. For all beginners, safety training can make a considerable difference. That includes online training, such as is available on websites like www.atvcourse.com. In fact, research demonstrates such a significantly reduced injury risk after ATV safety training that some states have begun to mandate it, and many insurance companies will provide rate breaks with proof of it.

ATV Safety 101

Image Source: ATV Safety.gov

For the most part, ATV safety basics are a matter of common sense, but that doesn’t mean we should take them for granted. Common sense can be elusive in the heat of the moment, and every year, hundreds of ATV accidents happen in North America due to lapses in basic ATV safety. For instance, despite the laws and obvious risks, numerous ATV accidents and injuries occur because of driving while intoxicated or under the influence of drugs.

Two other leading causes of accidents and injuries are riding tandem and riding on pavement. Tandems are extremely dangerous because an ATV requires a driver to shift his or her weight in order to steer it.

Since the driver cannot shift the weight of a passenger, this can cause steering to be inaccurate. Likewise, ATVs aren’t built for the road, and even with proper tires, they can be difficult to control, and that imprecision can lead to accidents.

ATV Gear

The most crucial aspect of safety basics is protective gear. The most common and severe form of ATV-related injury is the head injury, which is why riding helmets are so important. High-quality helmets will prevent concussion and even more serious head trauma. Other important protective gear includes gloves and eyewear. Rider should also wear shirts and pants that cover their arms and legs, and footwear should at least be high enough to cover the ankle.

Another vital aspect of ATV safety is the pre-ride inspection. This inspection comes as second nature to the established ATV driver, but it’s an easy thing for newbies to take for granted, especially if the vehicle is new. Before every ride, the driver should check the air pressure and tread of the tires, and check all cables. The rider should then start the vehicle. Once it’s running, inspect all lights and switches, and then inspect the throttle, foot-shifter and the brakes.

Here is a video rundown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3HxfxlGewg

The final basic safety consideration is knowledge of the terrain. Many obstacles are obvious, but many, including natural obstacles, are not. Do not take your riding area for granted. Even if it’s a regular stomping ground, take time to inspect the area. It’s especially important after severe weather when there’s potential for down trees and the like. If it’s a new area, ride through the entire course at least once slowly, and make a mental note of any hazards.

Thanks to Jason Harris for this informative post!

My Multi-Tools

From my collection of five, I’ve only bought one of my own accord.  My first, and the original Leatherman, was purchased way back in the late 90s when I was hiring out to paint homes for extra dough.  At the time it was a revolutionary tool and I used it one helluva lot.  From prying up paint lids to pulling frayed wires, to snipping anything and everything, I put the Leatherman through its paces and it held up and still does today.

The only other full-size multi I have is the Gerber.  It’s a couple of years old and I had received it as a birthday present.  The Gerber sports a lot more tools than the Leatherman and you pay for it in its bulk and weight.  And, while I appreciate Gerber quality, sometimes you just want to whip it out and get things done but the Gerber, with its safety locks make quick work pretty difficult.  This specifically is were the Leatherman shines.  It’s not nearly as stiff (partly due to its age I know) and can get to work in a hurry because its just quicker and smoother.

My Micro Minis

Somehow I’ve ended up with three mini micro-tools including a Gerber, Leatherman Micra, and a Columbia.  while I like the Columbia for its weight and flashlight feature, you can tell its built and equipped with less expensive material that will not hold up in the long run.  Not a big deal if your a casual user that doesn’t have to bet his/her life on it.  Otherwise you might want to find yourself a better quality like the Gerber or Leatherman.  I like both equally well and only tip my favor to the little Leatherman purely for the reason that they opted to incorporate scissors rather than pliers functionality that the Gerber has.  If I had to count how many times I could have used the pliers v.s. scissors out in the bush, scissors win hands down.

Now if the Micra Leatherman had the flashlight that the Columbia does only smaller, that might be near perfect.  After exploring the Leatherman and Gerber websites, they gone far beyond the original and I for one am glad to see it.  My birthday is just around the corner.

So what multi-tools do you own?  What’s your favorite & why?

During my perusal of the Cabella’s sales email I receive on a regular basis, I came across the NATO approved Gerber Folding Spade.  With a total length of 23.4 inches, the ad mentioned that it would fold up to a compact 9.37 inches, was easy to carry, and designed to stand up to almost anything you can put it through.  It also sported a serrated edge to aid in saw through vegetation while shoveling.  Overall it looked like a handy tool that would make a great addition to my outdoor gear collection.

It arrived Wednesday and I was pleasantly surprised.  On grabbing it out of the bubble encased Cabella’s box the orange and gray Gerber box inside sported the saying “Fend For Yourself”.  Hell yea, I thought.  One of the concerns I had was the “plastic” handle that a few of the reviewers had mentioned they didn’t like.  Well, there’s plastic and then…there’s plastic.  This beast sports a Polyamide Fiberglass handle that feels indestructible and could be described, at the very least, as stout.

You know those things that feel like quality when you first grab a hold?  Yea, this is one of those things.  The Gerber folds out stiffly but smoothy and has a convincing blade lock that won’t have you wondering if it will hold up or not.  Quality through and through.

The only drawback I see to the Gerber Folding Spade is the weight.  At 37.3 oz it “feels” heavy and its hard for me to envision myself throwing it into my pack for a nice day hike.  I lean toward minimalism and I have a hard time trying to justify carrying around 37+ ounces for a just-in-case scenario.  Car camping?  You bet, an easy call.  Lugging it around in my pack on the chance I might need it?  Maybe not.

Overall its awfully hard to find anything wrong the little Gerber.  Odds are it will outlast the operator far before it would experience any significant trouble when performing typical digging or trenching chores be it in the wilds or the backyard.

We were pleased to be able to build Lowell’s new site and look forward to some great outdoor posts.  Now go take a gander at LowellStrauss.com and throw down some good comments on this up-and-comer!

One of the most interesting involved his pointing out that Blogger offered BlogThis and WordPress did not.  Blog This enables bloggers to cite either other blogs or websites and create a blog entry from that.  In its simplest terms, you have the ability to create unique content from someone else’s original entry and build upon it either in support or opposition.  It is a great little feature in Blogger but hardly new.   The WordPress version is titled PressThis.

Anyway, this got me to thinking that there may be others who think this is only a blogger option.  Or maybe there are some bloggers out there who simply aren’t aware of these two tools that can, at times, come in very handy indeed.

BlogThis! – The Blogspot Option

If you use Google’s Blogger to host your outdoor blog, the simplest way to take advantage of Blog This, is to load up Google’s Chrome browser.  Chrome is my browser choice for purely surfing, it’s fast, nimble, and gets me where I want to go without all of the bells and whistles of IE or Firefox.  Once you have Chrome fully installed:

Go to the Chrome Web Store, search for it, and click the “Add to Chrome” button to install the BlogThis extension.

Once BlogThis is installed you will see it present on your Chrome navigation bar.  Now if you come across a blog posts that inspires you to post all you need to do is navigate to the post and click the orange “Blogthis” button.  The system will ask you to log in if you aren’t already and then will display a little pop-up window with the link to the original post in it and where you can formulate either a short comment or blog post regarding the article you want to highlight.  In my example I’ll use my latest post about Karen Lee of the National Wild Turkey Federation.  As you can see below, its pretty clean, simple, and efficient to spread the word about a quality post.

Press This – The WordPress Option

Press This, similar to that of the BlogThis option is easily installed on your toolbar as well, though it is much less finicky with what browser you use.  Even with Internet Explorer 9  it was basically a drag-and-drop operation to the tool bar and I was ready to rock.

To place the PressThis button on the browser toolbar:

• Log in to my WordPress dashboard
• Navigate to Settings > Writing
• Drag the Press This button from the administrative page to your browser toolbar

Once you have Press This on your toolbar, as illustrated above, you are ready to bookmark and comment on other outdoor bloggers and their entries by simply navigating to the blog post you would like to add to, click the Press This button, and then have at it.

Why Change Uncategorized?

By categorizing what you write, you tell the reader that you’ve put a certain amount of effort into making the navigation of your online presence as smooth as possible.  Conversely, when you utilize the “uncategorized” category, you’re sending readers an entirely different message by making them wade through posts that may or may not be of any interest.  Why not make it easy for your site’s visitors to navigate through site content and blog posts?

Key Factors

• Categories are not for you, they are for your reader.
• Categories help identify what your blog/website is about.
• Categories represent your body of work on the subject.
• Categories help your readers know if they are in the right place.
• Categories must encompass collected groups of information.
• Categories must be specific enough to help visitors understand the content within, while not being too general or vague.

How to Rename it

Thankfully, renaming the uncategorized category is simple and straightforward so let’s dive in.  Log in to your WordPress dashboard and follow the steps below.

1. Log in to your WordPress administrative dashboard.
2. Navigate this path: Posts > Categories.
3. Hover over the Uncategorized link and click the “Quick Edit” link that appears below it.
4. Create an appropriate category to your content & click the “Update Category” button.

Graphically Speaking

Step 2 – Go to Posts > Categories

Step 3 – Hover over the Uncategorized link and click the “Quick Edit” link that appears below it

Step 3 – Create an appropriate category to your content & click the “Update Category” button

But What are Favicons?

Favicons are quite simply a shortcut or bookmark icon that is typically a 16×16 pixel representative of your brand that is displayed in a browser’s address bar next to the page’s name in a list of bookmarks.  And, if you have a nice clean logo that is symmetrical in shape, it’s a good possibility you could create the favicon yourself.

Creating Favicons

So let’s assume that you have a symmetrical logo or company mark in a common file format such as .gif, .jpeg, .png, or even .bmp.  But how do we get the favicon standard format (.ico) from a more common one?  Thankfully there are several sites on the web that offer the online conversion for free.  One of these sites is dynamic drive with which I’ve had very good luck with.  Don’t be afraid to experiment.  The worst that can happen is that it turns out ugly.  Go to dynamic drive and simply browse to the image you would like to create a favicon out of from your systems hard drive and then click the “Create Icon” button.  Keep in mind your original image must be under 150 kb.

Another option would be to create one from scratch by visiting http://favicon.cc and build it online in real time.  Again, you will have to experiment with what works best for you and your application.  Don’t sweat it if the first five you create are junk.  Eventually you will find what works and you will have learned along the way.

Uploading Favicons

Once you have successfully created a favicon, you will need to upload it to your website or blog.  the how depends a lot on how your website or blog is constructed.  For a site that is built and maintained by an IDE such as Dreamweaver, you can simply add the following code to your home page within the HEAD section of the code.  Between the <head></head> tags of the HTML.

<link rel=”shortcut icon” type=”image/x-icon” href=”/favicon.ico”>

To add one to a WordPress blog that does not take advantage of a framework which includes this functionality, simply place your favicon.ico file inside your theme folder (for example: wp-content/themes/default/) then add this line to header.php insuring that it is placed somewhere between the <head></head> section:

<link rel=”shortcut icon” href=”<?php bloginfo(‘template_directory’); ?>/favicon.ico” />

By including a favicon you sharpen your business presence to take a whack at it and let me know how it goes.  Good Luck!

Features I Like

Feedback – One of the best features I like about this add on is that it provides instant feedback on things that could be easily overlooked otherwise.  In fact, as I began to write this review, I went to my OutdoorBlogger homepage using the latest edition of the Firefox browser and, to my surprise, found that I had inadvertently forgotten an alt tag for an image I recently replaced for my membership to the Professional Outdoor Media Association.  A great example of a simple error that SEO Doctor can identify that can be easily fixed.

Simplicity – The less I have to think about something, the better for all involved.  Happily, once you complete the steps in adding SEO Doctor to your Firefox browser.  It becomes nearly automatic to glance down at the bottom of the browser window and make sure you’re doing your part.  Green flag = Good to go, Yellow flag = Non critical warnings, Red flag = Concrete SEO elements can be improved, and finally the no trespassing icon means that the page is not indexable at all by search engines.

Features I Don’t Like

No Chrome Love – I admit it…I love the Google’s chrome browser.  It’s fast, light, and built for speed.  Would I love a version of SEO Doctor for Chrome?  Hell Yea!  That said, I still perform most of my web development work on FireFox.  Partnered with Firebug and the Web Developer Toolbar, my Firefox setup provides a really strong set of tools to aid in my web development.  So no, this is not a showstopper.

Firefox Updates – Sometimes updates that Firefox releases render SEO doctor unusable.  Whether it be the fault of Firefox or the add on I don’t know.  But, I definitely would not let that stop me from using it.  Vladmir Prelovac seems to always knock out an upgrade for it pretty quick and your back in business.

So there you have it.  If you blog regularly, why not load up Firefox and add SEO Doctor to your arsenal.  It’s easy to use, effective, and FREE.  And if you love it as much as I do, drop some change in Vladmir’s bucket for a great add on.  And yes…I have to say it.  It’s always better when the doctor is in.

The Professional Outdoor Media Association (POMA) and Outdoor Hub, The Outdoor Information Engine ™ are proud to launch the outdoor industry’s largest reaching job board, Great Outdoor Jobs.

Great Outdoor Jobs combines Outdoor Hub, which reaches 11-million-plus outdoor enthusiasts monthly,with the experience of POMA’s Money Line career service. POMA is the industry’s premier communicators organization. Since 2005, Money Line has provided top-level communicators, marketing professionals and industry executives career opportunities.

“POMA’s Money Line service is the leader in connecting industry professionals offering or seeking employment,” said Laurie Lee Dovey, POMA’s executive director. “Joining forces with Outdoor Hub allows this service to be expanded to the entire outdoor industry.”

Employers and Job Seekers can begin using Great Outdoor Jobs today by visiting: http://www.outdoorhub.com/outdoor-jobs.

“Outdoor Hub is the largest audience of outdoor enthusiasts online,” said Hyaat Chaudhary COO of Outdoor Hub. “We deliver a meaningful user experience, value to our publishers and results to our advertisers. Developing an industry-leading job board in partnership with POMA is another step in achieving our mission while also fostering opportunity and growth within the outdoor industry.”

Great Outdoor Jobs is a free service to employers and job seekers. It covers the full spectrum of opportunities, from entry-level to executive positions. In addition, visitors may find full-time and part-time job listings, freelance positions and even internships.

To learn more about POMA, please visit http://professionaloutdoormedia.org/ and to learn more about Outdoor Hub, may visit http://outdoorhub.com.

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Media Contacts

Laurie Lee Dovey, POMA, lldovey@professionaloutdoormedia.org, 814-525-6989

Great Outdoor Jobs, OutdoorHub.com, jobs@outdoorhub.com