Chuck Grimmett

Chuck Grimmett
Chuck Grimmett
@cagrimmett@cagrimmett.com

Posted by Chuck Grimmett. Learn more on his About page.

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  • Week of November 18, 2024

    The cold weather is here, and I am happy to have it. It snowed on Friday, but melted overnight. Given the weather, I’m in full hearty meal mode. Charlie was home sick on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. That made for a challenging work week. He was vomiting, but had full energy and was bouncing off…

  • Week of November 11, 2024

    I’ve been working on other people’s blogs at work all day, time to post on mine. Downtown Peekskill with Amanda and Charlie on Monday evening. We went to dinner at the Irish place, and we also checked on the Little Free Library and exchanged some books. We had another tough weekend with Charlie, so I’m…

  • Week of November 4, 2024

    Short post this week. I need to get some sleep. It has been a long week and I am tired. This work week was stressful and parenting was difficult. Optimistic that next week will be better. I made my own rosin and fly tying wax this week. I tied a few flies this week, too.…

  • Making Rosin and Fly Tying Wax

    Two weeks ago I scraped some pine resin off of a pine tree. This week I turned it into rosin, then blended it into fly tying wax. What is rosin? Rosin is the stuff musicians rub on violin bows to help them grip the strings better and produce better vibrations. Baseball pitchers use it to…

  • Wool Yarn Body Frenchie Nymphs

    Trying out some jig hook Frenchie nymphs with Shetland Spindrift wool yarn bodies instead of traditional pheasant tail bodies. This is my first time using the pheasant tail feather my Dad found, and my second time using dubbing. I’m getting better at the dubbing, but still inconsistent. I’m going to sleep on it, then pick…

  • Week of October 28, 2024

    Charlie worked with me in the shop on Monday night and I got down the hand drill and bit brace for him to check out. I was surprised by how quickly he grokked them. It was cool to see. He drilled decent holes by himself much safer than with a battery drill. I’ll have to…

  • Week of October 21, 2024

    Charlie and me at Home Depot: “Daddy, what’s this?” “An eye bolt” “Daddy look!” Charlie made a bus out of clay. I worked at the Automattic office in Manhattan on Wednesday. It was a beautiful day, so I had breakfast in Union Square before a phone call. For lunch I went to Thai Diner. Short…

  • Prototyping fly rod spoons

    I read Tenkara Bum’s post about fly rod spoons, which aren’t really available anymore. If you are lucky you can find a brand from Japan like Rodio, but the shipping is killer and they are hard to find. It is easy to find larger spoons, but for throwing them with a fly rod you want a…

  • Wading staff

    Quick project this week: A wading staff for fly fishing. Features depth marks, a T-handle with catches carved in to free snags, and magnets to dry out flies. The paracord clips to my waders so I can drop it without worrying about it floating downstream while I’m trying to land a fish. Made from a…

  • Week of October 14, 2024

    Charlie and I were on our own until Wednesday, when Amanda came back from London. We played outside, got pizza at Baci, went grocery shopping, did dishes, and read books. We also worked through the meltdowns together and took 3x as long to get out the door each morning, because even though I only post…

  • Tying deer and squirrel hair flies

    I mentioned last week that I brought back some deer and squirrel hair from animals I bagged 16 or 17 years ago. I tried tying some flies with them tonight. I tied five streamers with squirrel tail and varies bodies and throats, all on size 12 barbless streamer hooks: Then I tied two deer hair…

  • Recapturing the magic of the early blogging days

    At work today someone asked today about how we recapture the magic of the early days of blogging. I have some ideas. First, I don’t think that magic is gone! Sure, a lot of people moved to social platforms. The dopamine hit is just too addicting. Fortunately a lot of cool people are still blogging,…

  • Week of October 7, 2024

    It feels like fall here. Charlie and I returned home from a trip to cold, windy weather, and a yard covered in leaves. We had to turn the heater on in the house for the first time this season. I’m sipping some cognac while I write this. Nothing fancy, Gilles Brisson VS. Good sipper. There…

  • Little Free Library at Esther Place

    Early this summer the founder of Peekskill Walks reached out and asked if I’d be interested in building a Little Free Library for Esther Place, a former street that has been shut down and turned into a much needed outdoor community hangout spot. Sure! I love woodworking, books, and hanging out at Esther Place drinking…

  • Week of September 30, 2024

    The big thing this week is that 159 of my colleagues at Automattic left over three days as part of this ongoing struggle with WP Engine. I stayed. The offer was generous and tempting, but I think Automattic is in the right when it comes to the lawsuit and I believe in Matt’s leadership of…

  • Week of September 23, 2024

    We moved five house projects forward this week (three big, two tiny): The WordPress world is in uproar this week. It has made work interesting. The WP people reading this already know, and the non-WP people reading this probably don’t care, so I won’t bore you with the details other than to state which side…

  • Killer bugs and Grey & Orange kebari

    I tied 17 flies tonight. I’m getting faster! In-progress shots: These were fun to play around with and see what I could make. I also had fun getting my SLR out and using it again. Hopefully these photos are a little better. I need to get better about not crowding the hook eyes. Some of…

  • More Glass Bead Kebari

    A follow up to yesterday’s post on tying glass bead kebari: I tied eight more of the same pattern (pheasant hackle, red thread, peacock herl) tonight and am starting to get the hang of it. I also stepped down from a size 10 nymph hook to a size 12 dry fly hook, which has a…

  • Glass Bead Takayama Sakasa Kebari

    Trying out tying some Glass Bead Takayama Sakasa Kebari by Jason Klass. I have a lot to learn, but am making progress, which is all I can ask for. Tonight I got a little better at matching my material to my hook size and used two new ones (glass beads and peacock herl) for the…

  • Week of September 16, 2024

    Today is the Autumn Equinox. I couldn’t help noticing that the sunset and the light it cast on the Croton Reservoir was brilliant. I’m looking forward to autumn, cooler days, chilly nights, and fewer insects. It was warm enough to feel like the end of summer this week. Warm enough to play with the hose,…