Posted by Chuck Grimmett. Learn more on his About page.
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Fallfish on the fly
I went blue lining today in search of brook trout in NY near the CT border. I didn’t find any brookies, but I did catch 14 fallfish. Fallfish are a large native minnow species. All of the ones I caught were 6-10in long, but there were dozens of fingerling size in the stream, too. Even…
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Leather holster for a landing net
A couple months ago my uncle made a beautiful tamo, or Japanese fish landing net, for me. And during my recent visit, I noticed that he and my cousin made leather belt holsters for their landing nets, so I resolved to make one for mine, too. Following their advice, I hit up the nearest Hobby…
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Week of April 21, 2025
Cool photo I found this week: One of our neighbors put their house up for sale, and the listing included an aerial photo of our street. You can see our house and a great view of the town and the river. We feel very grateful to live here. Three big projects occupied my time this…
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Turning smaller tenkara line spools
I turned a new set of tenkara line spools earlier this week out of a piece of mimosa wood. From the last set of spools I turned, I gifted the smaller one and kept the larger two-tiered one. After using it for a couple months, I decided that I wanted a smaller, thinner one to…
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Week of April 14, 2025
This week was spring break for most of NY, so this week was all about hanging with Charlie. Monday we traveled back from Georgia. Charlie was a great traveler, and to our surprise he slept for the whole plane ride. Tuesday Charlie and I puttered around the yard doing lots of small tasks. We repotted…
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Week of April 7, 2025
At the beginning of this week, I helped with another trout release and macroinvertebrate sampling, which I wrote about here: I also finished an oak bowl on the lathe, which I wrote about here: Puttered around in the backyard and the workshop in the rain with Charlie. He checked on the radishes, organized his workbench,…
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Oak Fruit Bowl
I turned a fruit bowl out of oak (from the same tree as the platters) as a gift for my grandfather for his 90th birthday. This was the first project where I got to use a speed reducer on the Shopsmith, so it took me some extra time to set it up and figure out…
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Trout Releases & Macroinvertebrate Sampling
Last Thursday and today I volunteered with the Croton Watershed chapter of Trout Unlimited to assist with a trout release and macroinvertebrate sampling at Cross River as part of the Trout in the Classroom program. In the fall, the New York State Department of Conservation sends trout eggs to schools. The students watch them hatch,…
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Week of March 31, 2025
On the first week of my sabbatical: The fishing was a bit slow. The water temp is still pretty cold in most places around here (mid 40s), so the trout are fairly sluggish. I did get to check out some new locations, and I landed three, hooked but lost four more, and had more strikes…
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Week of March 24, 2025
This was my week at work to wrap up and hand things off before starting my sabbatical. I ended up getting a surprise project on Wednesday. It was fun but challenging, and I worked on it for three full days, and delivered what I had at the end of the day Friday. Now I’m winding…
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Week of March 17, 2025
I took it slow at work this week, focusing on handoffs since my sabbatical starts March 31. The brain fog got better as the week went on, but my energy levels still aren’t back to normal. I even took a nap on Saturday, which is very out of the norm for me. Follow up with…
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Weeks of March 3 and 10, 2025
The big thing this week: I was in the hospital Monday through Thursday. I woke up with severe pain in my left side around 3:30am Monday, which I thought might be a kidney stone given family history. The pain escalated to the point of making me vomit and writhe, so I went to the ER.…
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Week of February 24, 2025
My birthday was this week! I wrote a birthday post and later that night we went to Bridgeview Tavern in Tarrytown, one of our favorite places for a burger. They also are one of the few places around there that always has Hill Farmstead on tap, which I think is the best brewery in the…
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Thirty-five
Right after I woke up this morning, Charlie came in with a card that he and Amanda made for me, and he was really excited to give it to me and wish me a happy birthday. So sweet. I think I’ll remember this as the year I got back into making things after a couple…
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Week of February 17, 2025
I spent M-F this week in Southport, NC, at a team meetup for work. We stayed in the beautiful Cape Fear House on the Cape Fear River. Unfortunately, it was unseasonably cold and we canceled our planned outing of taking a ferry to explore a local island. We did check out two local museums and…
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Week of February 10, 2025
I make all of my chicken-based soups with ground chicken + stock now. It is much faster and doesn’t dry out. Tonight’s edition is chicken and wild rice, my take on the Panera one. More snow! More sleet! More ice! We’ve had more precipitation this winter than the last five we’ve been in Peekskill. Ready…
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Week of February 3, 2025
Long week. Charlie was home 3/5 days of the work week (sick, then doctor, then snow storm), and work was very busy with a lot of people out sick or with kids home with school closed. I feel like all I’ve been doing at work this week is reacting and adapting to unplanned things. Multiple…
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Oak Platters
I turned two oak platters recently, both from the same slab, in two different styles. One has a foot, a curved profile, and shallow cavity, the other has a flat bottom, steep edges, and a deeper cavity. A couple years ago, my aunt and uncle in north Georgia had a big Post Oak (in the…