I made a thing

I love building stuff … taking wood, even fence slats and other scrap wood like I did this time, and creating something useful. It’s a kick. Here’s my latest build project.

Lumber and list

I bought fencing slats from our local big box store. Spent an extra few minutes going through the pile and carefully selecting the pieces that minimized knots and other defects. Of course I carefully stacked the pieces I left behind. I needed enough lumber to complete the cut list that I wrote out by hand and stuck nearby for reference.

The parts

And here’s the pile of pieces that, when assembled correctly, will be a “thing”. Can you guess what it might be yet?

Finish-cutting the parts

By virtue of the names “rail” and “panel”, those familiar with woodworking should pick up on my building something with a floating panel assembly. These next two pictures show me finishing up the parts in preparation for assembly. The picture on the left shows the diagrams I was using for creating the legs and rails … the parts scattered about are the rails in rough shape … lots of work to complete them! The right shows a shoulder plane and some rails … I’m working on the tenons.

Legs

My project had four legs with rails and panels between pairs of legs, making a box. I nested the rails inside the legs using mortise and tenon joints … should last as long as the wood does. Here I am chopping out the mortises by hand … two mortises on two different sides of each leg, making for sixteen mortises. That’s a lotta chopping!

Dry fit

Once I was done with the finish-cutting and chopping, it was time to dry fit. To ensure that final assembly would mate the same mortises and tenons, I labeled all the parts … upper joints with letters, lower joints with numbers.

After getting a comfortable fit on the mortises and tenons, I made sure my panels would float in the grooves that I’d created in the rails. More than once I had to use a shoulder plane to get the right fit but, with the right tools, it’s a pretty straight forward project.

Assembly time!

And here it goes together!

 

Final part

I was building a planter for Suzy to use next to the bench\trellis project I made a month or two back. This one came out pretty good, however, we planned on using a plastic bucket inside to hold the actual plant. After putting in a bottom, you could see the white plastic pretty easily and it detracted from the overall look, so I made a “collar” … just a 1×4 top that would hide the plastic. I had to cut out the corners to fit around the upper parts of the legs and I held the pieces together using a spline. Actually, it was just a #0 biscuit, but it worked as a spline. I wanted to add a reinforcing plate to the bottom of the collar parts to provide some additional hold-together power, but for an assembly that was just going to sit securely on the top, it felt pretty solid without the reinforcing gusset … so that never was added.

Final product

And here it is … I’m pretty happy with it and will likely build additional ones for other places in the yard. It’s a good design that my buddy Tim gave me the plans for, so I have him to thank for that.

There are a few flaws in it and it’s not finished, but most of the wooden projects in our yard don’t have stain, so it’ll fit in with a season or so of weathering.

 

Thanks for dropping by!

River of Doubt

On some occasions I find a good book through serendipity … a cover catches my eye, the jacket captures an intriguing element of the story, or even the title grabs at my imagination … other times the book is thrust into my hands. River of Doubt, Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey might fall into all three of the above serendipitous examples but it was an old college friend who introduced me to my latest read.

Upon a visit to our home, she wandered into what we call “the library” or “reading room”: it’s an extra bedroom in which we installed six 7’x3’ shelving units that contain old college texts, some knickknacks, and, yes, books. Most of them, however, are from our younger years: the under-appreciated Roger Zelazny, JRR Tolkien, Terry Pratchett, Nevada Barr, and loads of classics. As she looked over the spines, she asked incredulously if we didn’t read anything with a bit more of an adult flavor. I laughingly showed her our bedroom collection … the other shelves in our home stuffed with the books we keep at hand and have read recently. Suzy’s books influenced by plants, animal husbandry, and biographies; mine by historical science, construction, and wilderness adventure. She nodded without enthusiasm, I suspect not spotting books she’d read, and asked if I’d about a few other titles (River of Doubt and Lab Girl were in that list) and that was it.

But, I put River of Doubt on my Amazon wish list and so it showed up at some gifting event. And what a gift … you should put this book on your list or, better yet, just go out and get a copy to enjoy now.

River of Doubt covers roughly half a year of Theodore Roosevelt’s life: shortly after his defeat in the 1912 election, he craved escape, an adventure, and the idea of exploring an Amazonian river seemed just the ticket. Over about 350 pages, Candice Millard shares the story of just how dear that ticket cost.

Millard pulls together so many details, from the planning of the trip, to the political environment in South America (who was being honored by an ex-US President who did little on their behalf but much for US’s interest in their countries), to the Indian populations living in the Amazon, that is seems impossible for her to have pulled these details together 100 years after the fact. The veracity of her story is attested to by nearly 50-pages of Notes, Select Bibliography, and Acknowledgements and that this story has held up to be a national bestseller. It’s a helluva page turner.

While the story deals with tedium of an exploration excursion … and many details of these events can be tedious … she remains above the boring bits and brings to life the intriguing aspects. For instance, the trip into the Amazonian jungles was largely planned by a failed polar explorer, and was initiated by a priest who expected … and was surprised his request was denied … to be carried about the Amazon jungle by the native peoples on a palanquin. She details the boats that had been sent to South America and how inappropriate they were to transport to the middle of the Amazonian jungle (for which they were discarded) and how the boats they did use (native dugouts) were equally inappropriate for the exploration of a wild and unknown river. Even the politics of camp and how the US contingent got along with the Brazilians in the expedition, or how the elite officers and far more numerous crew got along once starvation and disease starting taking toll on them. Gripping stuff, all of it.

But a lot is said by the telling, as much as by what was told about. Millard scarcely lets you finish a chapter without a near-cliffhanger-like ending sentence. On the chapter where Roosevelt is gravely injured and largely a burden on the expedition, it ends:

Then, without a trace of self-pity or fear, Roosevelt informed his friend and his son of the conclusions he had reached. “Boys, I realize that some of us are not going to finish this journey. Cherrie, I want you and Kermit to go on. You can get out. I will stop here.”

And while many endings are sensationalistic, others of a more optimistic nature can pull you into the next chapter just the same. As I found late in the book, with rations running exceptionally low and Roosevelt incapacitated by fever and disease:

This was the first mark of the outside world that the men had seen since they had launched their dugouts on the River of Doubt a month and a half earlier. It was a sign of hope – a sign that salvation lay within reach.

You can’t tell me, even with the bus stop coming in the next minute or so, you’re not going to start that next chapter!

I’m a simple reader and a less capable reviewer but I found the book compelling, enjoyable, and I strongly recommend you read it when you’re able. Whether you like historical biographies and are interested in Roosevelt and his family (you’ll get that), if you like adventure tales and are curious how an ex-US President would find himself literally discovering for the outside world a 500-mile river in the Amazon basin (this is admittedly a bit more sensational than factual), or are intrigued by the history (on geological scale) of the Amazon and how the animals have evolved and adapted … heck, even if you are curious what a polar explorer would pack for a jungle expedition (spoiler: lots of condiments … he expected them to hunt most of the food they ate) … you’ll get it in this book!!

Experimentation is the key

While I’ve complained about my SPOT device the past few weeks, I’ve also continued taking it on every hike; learning what works and what doesn’t. This past weekend, I learned in explicit terms what doesn’t work. My most recent attempt was to put the SPOT on a lanyard and wear it around my neck. Yup, it bounced against my sternum as I gasped breaths, the cord chafed at my neck in the heat and sweat of the day (although, there wasn’t that much heat), and it was a general nuisance, but to get better performance from my SPOT, I’d give anything a try.

And it failed. Big time.

Aspiring to the best qualities of Thomas Edison, I know what doesn’t work. And, I’ll keep trying to figure out what does, but to the left is my 17 mile hiking profile from my trip along Rattlesnake Ridge and back from Snoqualmie Point.

While you can’t see it from the picture, there are actually four points showing and, yes, the checkmark means those are the places I checked in. And, yes again, I did have the Track setting enabled. Which means that I didn’t capture a single location from the tracking software. Not a single one.

The way across the ridge is pretty straightforward on good trails with, admittedly, a bit of tree cover. However, across the entire back of the mountain we were on gravel roads walking through clear cuts. Not only weren’t we under trees, there were no trees!

And yet it’s very sad that the only times I was able to get a signal through was when we’d stop, position the SPOT to lay back down on the ground (face up to the sky) and let it sit like that for 10 minutes or so.

The antenna in the SPOT is located in the front, so that’s the desired positioning of it to give it the best chance at sending and receiving signals, but I was very surprised that not a single event was captured while worn as a necklace. Maybe it was the positional aspect or maybe the bouncing about, but it didn’t register a single location when worn as a necklace.

As I continue to find out what doesn’t work with this device, my next effort will be to find a way to position it on the top of my pack facing the sky. That should be my last, best chance to get this thing working reliably. And, I suppose, find hikes that are less tree-covered.

Here are a few pics from the trail:

The trail is just over 10 miles from Snoqualmie Point to Rattlesnake Lake; we planned to stop at Rattlesnake Ledge and head back the way we came … making it about an 18 mile day. Heath’s GPS said we made it just under 17 miles as we stopped at an upper ledge\viewpoint and didn’t head to the Ledge proper. That was fine by me. As you can see in the final picture, the trail was under maintenance in one section so it was detoured to the back of the mountain … right through a clear cut. Not the sort of scenery you want when making a little hike.

We had full trail packs on as we are training for a stint along the Pacific Crest Trail, planning to travel roughly 75 miles from Steven’s Pass to Snoqualmie Pass. We’ll average 15 miles days and this was our trek to see how we felt after a single day with 35# packs. My feet were killing me! The trip will be a real test of endurance, strength and pain avoidance. Anyone out there interested in a similar challenge: don’t wait until you’re over 50 year old (like I am) before trying this!! It may not be “fun” but it will be rewarding.

Well, thanks for dropping in; may your trails be maintenance free and, if they aren’t, I hope you can avoid the clear cuts.

More Seattle adventures

Seems we enjoy a bit of glassblowing here in Seattle … and when you can share that with traveling family and friends: all the better!! Here’s a picture that has my mother flashing a “thumbs up” … proof positive we had a fantastic time!

In the pic: Natalie, Suzy, me, mom, Ashley and Jay. Karen was taking the picture and she did a great job!

And another

In addition to enjoying Seattle Center, we passed through Pike Place Market! Here’s a shot of my brother Jay, mother, me, and nieces Natalie and Ashley. Oh yea … and Rachel the pig!

6

Here’s a cute picture

A couple weeks back my mother along with my brother and his family came out for a visit. We had a grand time and among the many places we visited was the Chihuly Garden and Glass Exposition at the Seattle Center. It was a beautiful day amid beautiful works of art … with some beautiful people! Here’s a shot of my mother, niece Natalie, sister-in-law Karen, and niece Ashley. It’s hard to imagine a better group of folks to enjoy the afternoon with.