Chuck Grimmett

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  • Cozy places photo walk

    As part of my goal for this year to get back into photography, I charged my SLR’s batteries and went on a photo walk in the woods after a big snow.

    I gave myself the theme of “cozy places” that small woodland creatures might hole up during the storm.

    I couldn’t help but take a photo of the bridge that Charlie and I love:

    And the creek:

    Along the way I ran into a few mountain bikers and their well-trained pup:

    And then a neighbor’s pup:

    The goal was to help train my eye for noticing and framing again. I’m definitely rusty, but I like how some of these turned out. I need to make taking my camera out with me a habit again. As the deep freeze continues this week and next, I’m hoping to get some photos of river ice.

  • Snow day dessert

    One of the things going around on Instagram right now is people making ice cream out in the snow. It sounded fun, so I pitched the idea to Charlie. I didn’t have to ask him twice!

    To speed up the process, I opted for a recipe that didn’t involve adding eggs and heating everything up on the stove. Simple is the key, as things like this are more about the activity than the outcome.

    I tossed the ingredients (heavy cream, powered sugar, vanilla) in a quart container and grabbed one of the metal mixing bowls while Amanda helped Charlie get his snow gear on, then we headed outside.

    It took a lot of whisking and longer to freeze and thicken up than I expected, and certainly longer than the standard four year old has in them, so we took breaks to play in the fort and taste the icicles.

    Eventually Charlie got cold and we went back inside. I moved the bowl up to the porch to keep freezing while I made dinner. I went out and whisked every 15 minutes or so.

    By the time we ate dinner, it had set up nicely.

    Admittedly, it tasted more like frozen whipped cream than ice cream, but Charlie was jazzed to share a dessert that we made together out in the snow. He put rainbow sprinkles on his, Amanda put peanut butter and chocolate on hers, and I put chocolate on mine.

    Perhaps in a couple years we’ll try it again with a frozen custard recipe.

    Still, it was fun, novel, and a good way to do something together. If you have a young one at home and snow on the ground, give it a try.

  • Habanero harvest 2025 sauce

    Life was busy in late September/early October when the habaneros in our garden ripened, and I didn’t have the gumption to make a batch of hot sauce out of them. Charlie and I bagged them up and froze them instead.

    We ended up with ~60 orange and red habanero peppers, about twice as many as last year.

    Fast forward to January, when I was making the chili on Saturday, I decided to cook down the peppers into sauce while I had to keep an eye on the simmering beans and chili.

    This recipe from Rick Bayliss is my go-to. I change the proportions a bit, and this time around I made roughly a 5x batch.

    Habanero Hot Sauce

    I cooked the ingredients down, pureed it, then set the bowl out in the snow for a bit to cool.

    I ended up with almost 2 quarts, which is roughly 12 5oz bottles.

    After I bottled it, Amanda had a great idea. We’ve been saving the wax from the Babybel cheese that Charlie likes to eat for almost a year. The glass jar we store the wax in is now full, and she’s been interested in melting it down to use in some projects. She thought it would be cool to seal the bottles with wax, too. Great idea!

    I melted it down and gave it a test dip.

    It worked, and Charlie wanted to help, too. He dipped about half of the bottles.

    I poured the rest of the wax into silicone cube trays to save for future projects.

    Now, back to the hot sauce. It has a nice kick, a bit of fruitiness from the habaneros, and a noticeable but not overwhelming amount of garlic. It will be a good everyday house sauce, just like last year’s batch.

    Compared to last year’s batch, this year’s is a bit deeper reddish orange and thicker. Favor-wise they are very similar. I used the same recipe.

    The snow is still piled up on our deck railing, so I thought it would be fun to pull out the SLR and take a photo:

  • Snowy Weekend

    It snowed here all weekend. It is hard to tell exactly how much we got because Saturday the snow was fluffy and the wet, heavy snow on Sunday compressed it. There’s six inches on the porch railing as I write this, and it is still snowing.

    Charlie and I spent a few hours playing out in the snow. We built a snowman, packed snow on his slide to make a sled ramp, and went sledding in the woods.

    Oh, we shoveled four times. Charlie is getting pretty good at clearing the sidewalk.

    When we came in for a break, Amanda made us hot chocolate (Charlie’s favorite!). I’ve started mixing a tablespoon of instant espresso into mine.

  • 2016 trend

    You’ve probably seen the Instagram trend of posting selfies from 2016. Here are some of mine.

    Visiting the Sol LeWitt Retrospective at MASSMoCA. I spent hours in this building taking notes on the wall drawings. LeWitt is my favorite artist and this retrospective is well worth your time if you like his work, too.

    Taking photos at Point Reyes.

    Taking photos at Yosemite.

    Amanda on the Mist trail at Yosemite.

    Untermeyer Gardens in Yonkers.

    Taking photos of coffee beans, with the help of a lovely assistant.

    Amanda and I picnicking and watching a play at Boscobel, then a couple months later apple picking at Wilkins. Little did we know that four years later we’d move a few miles down the road from Wilkins. Ten years later we’d be driving past Boscobel every day taking our son to school.

    In the summer of 2016, I drove coast to coast with my parents. I took pano-selfies along the way.

    I can’t believe I thought that beard length looked good.

    Looking back at my blog posts from 2016, it was a year of creativity and learning. I hope 2026 holds more of the same.

    Three of my favorite photos I took that year, which are helping inspire me to dust off my SLR and start taking photos again:

    Nevada Falls at Yosemite.

    The national seashore at Point Reyes.

    Golden hour at Point Reyes.

  • Chili with Vaquero beans

    This week’s bean dish was chili with vaquero beans. My original plan for this week was a lentil dish, but after rummaging around in the basement freezer, I realized we had tomatoes, tomato paste, and beef, so a nice hearty bowl of chili came to mind. Perfect for today’s snowstorm, which dropped four inches of snow on us.

    I used a conglomeration of three recipes: This one from Rancho Gordo, my mom’s, and this one from Serious Eats.

    It had:

    • 1lb cubed beef from Hemlock Hill Farm, down the road from us
    • 1lb Vaquero beans
    • 2 Red onions
    • Garlic
    • Dried chiles (ancho, mulato, pasilla, and guajillo)
    • Mexican oregano
    • Cumin
    • Coriander
    • Tomatoes from our garden
    • Homemade tomato paste
    • Beef broth
    • 1 can of lager
    • Fish sauce
    • Chocolate
    • Worcestershire sauce
    • Bourbon
    • Salt
    • Pepper
    • Turbinado sugar

    I liked the vaquero beans. They have great coloring, which they retain even after cooking. They also mostly retain their shape. They I soaked the beans for about 6 hours before cooking them, which sped up the cooking time.

    A few thoughts on the chili:

    • I think this was my first time making chili with a bean other than kidney. I think it is worth experimenting more in the future.
    • I prefer cubed beef to ground beef, as it gives a more beefy flavor. It does take longer to cook though.
    • I started using dried chiles instead of powder in 2017, and I’m probably never going back. They add more depth to the flavor. I toast them, soak them in boiling water for 10 minutes, take the seeds out, then blend them with some broth and tomato paste. The blended mixture goes into the pot.
    • The fish sauce, chocolate, Worcestershire sauce, and bourbon were tips from J. Kenji to build up the flavor complexity and umami. Mostly recommended. I might skip the bourbon and sugar next time, though I’m curious how the flavors will meld in the fridge overnight. I tasted it before and after adding the bourbon at the end, and I think it stood out a little too much for me.

    I prefer Fritos with my chili:

    I rarely make the same recipe twice. I can’t resist riffing on it and adapting to what we have on-hand. That said, there are elements of this I’d use in a future batch. I only make chili once a year or so. Perhaps I should make it more.

  • Discernment

    The hard part isn’t learning the finer points of prompt engineering, how to set up and use agents, or how to connect the right systems for necessary context.

    The hard part is choosing when using AI is appropriate and when it isn’t. Choosing which output is acceptable and which isn’t. Choosing what to work on with this new tool at your disposal. Choosing when you need to lean in to doing things the slow, hard, old fashioned way or the new, fast, easy way. Choosing, then owning your decision.

    In short, the hard part is discernment. It always has been. AI has only changed the calculus.

    We are all figuring this out while the boat sails across the open ocean, picking up speed.

  • Shopsmith is back under new ownership

    An email went out to the Shopsmith mailing list last night saying that they are under new ownership. Here is a link to the browser version of the email from Mailchimp.

    TL;dr:

    • They are back under new ownership.
    • They are working through the order backlog, hoping to ship all back orders by the end of February.
    • They plan to build up product inventory again.
    • The forums are back.
    • They are planning on putting out more content (demos, projects, classes).

    This is good news! Their website hasn’t been updated yet, but I bet that will happen soon.

    Here’s a video with the new CEO:

    I’m hoping for more access to discontinued parts and accessories, videos on how to maintain and upgrade old machines (mine is 50 years old!), and new tools/parts/accessories to upgrade old machines like mine to keep them going for another 50 years.

  • Two simple fly patterns for beginners

    Tonight I went out to one of our local Trout Unlimited chapter’s monthly fly tying nights. Always nice to get out and tie together with some folks for a couple hours!

    We had a couple new fly tyers come tonight, so I demo’d two simple patterns for beginners that fish well in the winter: Utah Killer Bugs and Eggs.

    Both are simple patterns that only take two materials (wire and yarn, or a bead and egg yarn) plus thread and allow you to practice the basics: Tying materials on with thread, keeping tension as you wrap both thread and yarn, and whip finishing.

    If you are just starting out and want to try these patterns, here are the two videos where I originally learned to tie them:

    The only differences with the egg are that I opted to use orange EZ Egg yarn because the wild trout in our watershed are primarily brown trout (their eggs are orange), and I decided not to tie a hotspot to keep things simple. Once you have the basics down, then you can add more to it.

    Here is tonight’s crew (minus me taking the photo) hard at work:

    After tying a few killer bugs, the two beginners were getting the hang of it. We only had time to tie one egg together, but their first attempt was decent enough to fish. They are quick learners. I sent them home with some extra yarn for both killer bugs and eggs so they can practice some more.

  • Cassoulet bean gratin

    This week’s bean dish was a gratin made with cassoulet beans, fennel bulb, onion, garlic, thyme, and breadcrumbs. Recipe from Rancho Gordo, which I’m sure you read about in the WSJ this weekend.

    Amanda and I both loved it. Charlie wouldn’t try it, but he was very curious about what fennel bulb is, how beans grow, and whether or not they are seeds. I’ll take it.

    The dish came together quickly since I had cooked beans in the fridge already from the weekend. I cooked a full pound of cassoulets for the cauliflower dish, which was essentially a double batch. Cooking dried beans is the most time consuming part.

    When I went to cook this, I discovered that we didn’t have any breadcrumbs on-hand. I thought we had a bag of panko, but I was wrong. What we did have was a large open bag of plain pita chips, so I turned those into crumbs in the food processor.

    I served this with Italian sausage links, a simple side salad, and a white wine from Côtes de Provence.

    Both the fennel bulb and thyme gave it a great flavor. Even though this had the same base bean as the cauliflower dish, Amanda strongly preferred this one.

    I’ll certainly make this again. It is a great way to use extra cooked beans. I think it would also make a nice side at Thanksgiving. I’ll keep it in mind for this November.

    What’s next? I’m thinking something with lentils. I have some French-style green lentils on-hand. Maybe Mujadara if I have the time to be adventurous, or lentil soup with sausage and kale if not.

  • Featured images are friction

    Henrique commented on my “Just hit publish” post with:

    As a designer, I feel that the Post Featured Image blocks me from writing much more than ‘normal’ people would think. I need time to conceive and prepare it—which makes quick daily posts impossible. Maybe I should review my blog template and get rid of them as a test to blog more.

    I agree! I think I dropped my post template’s reliance on a featured image in 2021, when I noticed that coming up with an image was getting in the way of just hitting publish.

    I still have featured images in some posts, but my post template works with or without them. Archive templates, too. The Site Editor makes this easy…if there is a featured image it populates, but if not no placeholder or markup gets loaded. I often have featured image on project-type posts like my woodworking, but the majority of my posts do not have one. This is a big difference from 10 years ago when every post had a featured image.

    While we are on the topic of optional features of posts, I also think titles are optional. You don’t need titles on Twitter, Bluesky, or Mastodon, so why do you need them on your blog?

    My standard post type does use titles, but my Micro and Likes post types do not. I like separating my streams of content that way, but that is personal preference.

    It is worth noting that ma.tt and scripting.com both treat titles as optional. Featured images, too.

  • Cauliflower with cassoulet beans and capers

    This week’s bean dish was cauliflower with cassoulet beans and capers.

    I really enjoyed the smoky tanginess that the sherry vinegar + smoked paprika added to the dish. I served this as our main side with a pork tenderloin.

    This was tasty enough to make again, but probably not going into the standard rotation. I’ll keep it in my back pocket for that late summer period where we get cauliflower every week in the veggie share and need to change it up.

    The recipe made enough that we have leftovers, so it will be an easy side for tomorrow’s dinner. I cooked a whole pound of cassoulet beans, but only needed half of that for this dish, so I’m thinking of using the other half in a gratin on Monday.

    Cheers! 🫘

  • What I’m Reading, January 2026

    Non-fiction

    • The Living Great Lakes: Searching for the Heart of the Inland Seas by Jerry Dennis
      • Received this for Christmas, continuing my reading about the Great Lakes after really enjoying the Dan Egan book recently.
    • An Immense World by Ed Yong
      • Recommendation from my friend Colin Russell. A lot of fascinating info about how different creatures sense the world in very different ways than we do.
    • Permission to Feel by Marc Brackett
      • Charlie’s school uses the Mood Meter to check in with moods and emotions every day, so we’ve started using it at home, too. This book is where it comes from, so I thought I’d read it to learn more about navigating my own emotional well-being and help Charlie learn how to navigate his.

    Fiction

    • Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
      • I’m 1/4 of the way through this and enjoying it. I think I need to explore more from Barbara Kingsolver. Send me your recommendations!
    • Critical Mass (Expeditionary Force, Book 10) by Craig Alanson
      • For the past two years I’ve had one of these going on audio regularly. Mostly while cooking solo, doing dishes, or mowing the lawn.
    • Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler
      • I started this back in November and set it aside to read There Is No Anti-Memetics Division, so picking it back up now.

    What are you reading this month?

  • Just hit publish

    Blog posts don’t have to be Atlantic-style essays, ground-breaking ideas, or heavily researched. Not everything has to be epic or viral. You can post whatever you want, whenever you want. Keep it low friction and hit Publish. Personal blogs are meant to be low stakes.

    • Some of Seth Godin’s posts are two sentences.
    • It can be a technical note to save you time in the future.
    • Ma.tt sometimes shares links or videos with one line of commentary, and the site currently has snow falling down the page. The color of the theme changes with the seasons.
    • Scripting News, probably the longest running blog on the web, has a stream of commentary and links on a wide variety of subjects every day.
    • Sometimes Manton just has pictures of a coffee shop or short commentary about new Lego releases.
    • DaringFireball.net sometimes just has links to Philly baseball articles.
    • Nick has more Mountain Dew flavor review posts than I knew existed.
    • Anh recently posted photos of her planner.

    Some ideas:

    • I’m a big fan of blogging about what you do, kind of as a public journal. Weekly or monthly recaps are great!
    • Write about what you read/listened to/watched in the last month.
    • A Tweet or Instagram post can be a blog post. Just post them in both places!
    • What are your special interests? Right now mine are wood turning and fly fishing/fly tying. Write about yours! Do you bake sourdough? Try different whiskeys? Sew? Collect baskets? Know everything about the Arizona Diamondbacks? Write about it!
    • Post quotes from what you read.
    • Post links to things that capture your interest for a few minutes.

    Don’t overthink it or get caught up in what other people might think of your post.

    Just hit publish.

  • Blogging Beyond the Wall

    Social networks are walled gardens. They are closed networks that restrict how users interact, what they see, and how data flows.

    Outside of the walls is the blogosphere. It is diverse and distributed.

    If the web is Westeros, social platforms are the Seven Kingdoms, run by mad kings from their Iron Thrones, and the blogosphere is Beyond the Wall. Free folk, wildlings. There are clans that sometimes fight each other and othertimes unite against common enemies.

    Just as modern Westeros has some of its roots beyond the wall at Fist of the First Men, the modern Web has some of its roots in the blogosphere.

    The Seven Kingdoms (social networks), though at times opulent and tempting, are feudal and exploitative. No place for free folk (bloggers and creators) to live.

    A room of one’s own

    Facebook is where you post stuff you are okay with your great aunt commenting on. Instagram is where you post pictures of your family, the meal you cooked, and where you went on vacation. Twitter is where you post hot takes. TikTok is where you post dance videos. LinkedIn is where you make stuff up about your job.

    Your blog is where you can be you. You post what you want, when you want. Algorithms and mad king tech overlords be damned.

    Like Virginia Woolf said, if you want to create art you need a room of your own. On the web that is your blog, at your own domain name. (h/t Joan).

    To keep the Game of Thrones references going, I’ll misquote Mance Rayder:

    “The freedom to make post my own mistakes was all I ever wanted.” – Mance Rayder.

    The blogosphere is where creativity, individuality, and diversity thrive on the web.

    Others have already said it better, so I’m going to do what we do here on the open web and link to them: Blogging is punk rock. A personal website is an act of rebellion. The IndieWeb is for everyone. Blogging is an investment in the future of the web. Blogging is infrastructure for thinking. Digital homesteading. Innovation. Discourse.

    “Blogging is dead”

    People keep claiming blogging is dead. To that I say, “You know nothing, Jon Snow.” Inside the Seven Kingdoms you are blind to the world Beyond the Wall. Out here we are living and blogging. Every day my feed reader is full of new interesting blog posts. Some times it is harder to blog than others, but we keep at it.

    Check ooh.directory or blogroll.org for examples.

    Blogging is very much alive, though it is constantly under threat, just as the web overall is. Some of the threats come from the nature of the closed social networks themselves, Other threats are from government overreach and censorship in some countries, AI, and centralized infrastructure like AWS and Cloudflare.

    Where do we go from here?

    Hodor!

    Hodor! Hold the door against the things that threaten our independent blogosphere and the web in general: Closed networks, billionaires who want to own your content and attention, and AI White Walkers.

    We need open standards, better independent blogging tools, and people willing to use them. People willing to step outside the closed networks and post on their own domain.

    Unlike Westeros, there’s no Arya Stark in the blogosphere to save the open web. It is up to each of us. Keep blogging. Keep linking. Keep reading feeds. Encourage others to keep blogging, too. The open web depends on it.

    Don’t have a blog yet? Set one up with WordPress or Micro.blog. Email me and I’ll help.

    See also: Why blog?

  • Shopsmith Mark V Single vs Double Bearing Quills

    ,

    Earlier this year I started noticing some runout on the spindle of my 50 year old Shopsmith Mark V. I did some reading about my specific model and came to two conclusions:

    1. The bearing has never been replaced and is probably worn out.
    2. The quill in my machine is a single bearing quill.

    Replacing the bearing is straightforward. Alex’s Shopsmith Repair sells them and with a few tools you can replace it yourself.

    What I also learned is a bit trickier: Replacing the single bearing might solve some of the problem, but won’t solve the entire problem. Later versions of the Shopsmith shipped with double bearing quills, adding a second bearing to further support the spindle. The spindle on the single bearing quill is still supported by the drive sleeve, but there is a bit of give there, which contributes to the runout.

    The rabbit hole gets a bit deeper. It turns out that Shopsmith made many different kinds of quills. Everett Davis wrote an incredible guide to all the different kinds of bearings in 2017, which includes details about the different kinds of quills. I’ve reposted that here in its entirety:

    Shopsmith-Bearings-Guide-15-Oct-2017-Everett-L.-DavisDownload

    To be certain what kind I had, Charlie and I pulled my quill out and took it apart. Looks like a 1970s single bearing quill, which matches with my machine’s serial number.

    One design flaw of the double bearing quills that Shopsmith started shipping in 1984 is that the spindle changed from a single piece of machined steel to a two-piece spindle pinned together. According to James, this is prone to bending. Also, with the two bearings being so close together and the back one being smaller, the back one wears out faster, again causing runout.

    So do you choose a single bearing quill and the runout, or a double bearing quill and risk bending it when doing heavy, unbalanced turning?

    At first I chose the two-piece double bearing quill since I try to balance out my work pieces as much as possible. Then Shopsmith went out of business before they shipped it to me (and closed down all customer service avenues). I eventually got my money back through a chargeback, then went hunting for alternatives.

    I was going to just order new bearings, change them myself, and live with it, until I came across this video from Skip Campbell:

    Skip takes the one-piece spindle single bearing quills and machines them to fit a second bearing on the back. Great idea! Best of both worlds—same-sized bearings spaced far apart on a single-piece spindle. I ordered one from him at MKC tools.

    Here it is where you can see the rear bearing and the

    I put it in my machine and turned a small bowl. It works like a dream. No runout, and no chatter unless I’m using my bowl gouge incorrectly. With the old one the runout caused chatter even with light cuts.

    Now that Shopsmith is shut down, I’m sourcing backups of critical non-standard parts, so I’m going to reach out to Skip and see if he’ll machine my original quill to fit a second bearing so I have a replacement. I’d love for this machine to last another 50 years.

  • Why I Blog

    This weekend a friend texted me a screenshot of a Pinterest link his wife sent to him.

    It was a link to my climbing wall post. She wants him to build one for their son. He recognized Charlie and my blog right away. Someone had pinned it and it gets a decent amount of traffic.

    In a nutshell, that is why I blog. It warms my heart that people are building swing sets and climbing walls for their kids after reading one of my posts. I know of at least eight swing sets built from my post, and I assume there are more based on how many views the post series gets.

    I share things on this blog in an attempt to inspire others to share things on their blogs, too. I often get ideas from the blogging community for things to read, projects to make, dishes to cook, and places to go. Sometimes this sparks conversations in person, too!

    I also blog things for future me. I am probably the single most frequent consumer of my old posts. I could keep it all buried away in Obsidian or Evernote, but I like sharing it.

    I’d love if you shared the things you make, read, and do, too. Preferably on your own blog instead of locked inside a walled garden (Facebook, Instagram, etc.) When you do, send me a link. I’d love to read it.

    I also blogged about blogging a couple years ago in Why Blog?.

  • Weekly Beans

    One of the things I want to do in 2026 is to cook more beans. It occurred to me a few nights ago that I should try to make at least one bean dish each week.

    I started on January 2 with a chicken, wild rice, and black eyed pea soup.

    Here are some more ideas:

    What else should I make? Please send me your favorite bean dishes!

  • Winter gift for the birds

    For the past three years, we’ve started the new year by going for a walk in the woods to collect pinecones and make a little treat for the birds. We roll them in peanut butter and birdseed, then go back out the next day and leave them on logs, tree stumps, and branches for the birds.

    It has become an accidental tradition and a fun way to start out the year by being out in nature, doing something together as a family, and being kind to the wild birds we enjoy watching in the woods.

    Collecting:

    Making:

    Distributing:

    While both collecting and distributing, we were fortunate to see the resident pileated woodpeckers hard at work hunting for bugs. The seed mix we used included sunflower seeds and peanuts, and we stuck a few pinecones in their trademark oval holes, so we hope they found them and had a snack.

  • Month of December 2025

    December was all about the holidays.

    We started the month by getting rid of the Thanksgiving decorations. Charlie wanted to run them over with the car, so we did.

    We set up the Christmas Tree in stages. First the tree + train, then the lights and ornaments Amanda and I prefer, then Charlie’s additional ornament picks, rearranged daily throughout the month.

    Charlie and I went to the NYBG Train Show with Jeremy. It was amazing!

    I turned a French rolling pin for our friend Marie out of a log (spalted maple) from their property.

    I also turned a few Christmas tree ornaments out of the same log.

    Charlie helped us with Christmas cards this year. He drew vehicles on at least half of them! It was fun having him customize them. It was the first year he’s helped.

    There was snow and sledding. It was the coldest, snowiest December we’ve had so far living in Peekskill.

    Walks in the woods.

    Winter festivities at Charlie’s school. Charlie wanted to help pass out food at the solstice party, so we volunteered at the bake sale table.

    Christmas parties, too!

    We spent Christmas in Ohio and there were lots of family festivities. Here’s Charlie and Nora clowning at Great Gram’s:

    A new birdhouse ornament from Dad, this year with a fly shop theme:

    On the way back we stopped at Erin and Tyler’s house in Pittsburgh. Charlie and Gus were fast friends and played together the entire time. I wish we lived closer.

    We closed out the year by baking some bread on NYE and then Amanda and I watched the new Knives Out movie.

  • Things I’d like to do in 2026

    I’m not big into resolutions, but here are some things I’d like to do in 2026. Many of these are getting back to old interests I’ve moved away from for one reason or another.

    • Sketch more.
      • To make it fun, maybe a little sketch in Charlie’s lunchbox every day? Or more art time together?
    • Keep stretching.
      • I feel better when I stretch daily, but I haven’t made it a habit.
    • Engage with mathematics again.
    • Bake more bread.
      • Getting a sourdough starter going again. Started that yesterday! Also got a Jim Lahey no-knead recipe started.
        • I’d like to make regular boules for dinner, plus sourdough pizza.
      • Cinnamon bread (sweet yeast bread).
        • I really enjoyed making this a couple years ago, but haven’t made it recently.
      • This is a great Charlie activity.
    • Cook more beans.
    • Learn how more mechanical machines work.
      • I have an okay understanding of how certain kinds of engines work, but I’d like to get a more intuitive understanding of them. Perhaps I’ll start with some of Bartosz Ciechanowski’s work.
      • I’m very interested in analog computing and mechanical calculators.
    • Read more non-fiction.
    • Carve a trough/dough bowl.
      • I have wood set aside for this, I just need to start. I should approach it as a multi-month project that I work on in short stints rather than trying to do the whole thing in a weekend. My life isn’t compatible with spending full days in the workshop right now.
    • Get my SLR back out and start taking photos again.
      • Maybe start by grabbing the camera for woods walks with Charlie?
      • First step: Putting the batteries on the charger.

    I know that adding more means that I’ll have to do less of something else. I’d mostly like to scroll less social media and spend less time looking at screens outside of work.

    Wishing you all a good 2026.

  • Top 3 (2025)

    Happy New Year! I like to do a more narrative recap on my birthday, so at the end of the calendar year I make lists of top things in multiple categories. See also: 2024, 2023.

    Meals

    1. Dutch oven coal cinnamon rolls
      • When camping with my parents, they said they wanted to try cooking in a dutch oven over coals. None of us had tried it before, and it gave me some ideas. I haven’t tried it again, but I plan to this coming year.
    2. Onion rings in Cape Cod
      • Piles of thinly sliced, battered onion rings were a hit in Cape Cod this summer.
    3. Picnics in Charlie’s fort
      • Not a specific meal, but we really enjoyed having picnics with Charlie in his fort this spring and summer.

    Shows

    1. Slow Horses
      • Gritty spy thriller in modern London
    2. Black Doves
      • Sleeper agent spy thriller, also in modern London
    3. Yellowstone
      • New to me, and I really enjoyed it while being laid up earlier this year.

    Non-fiction Books

    1. The Death and Life of the Great Lakes by Dan Egan (2018)
      • I learned a lot about the great lakes that I didn’t know, even though I lived a few miles away for the first 23 years of my life.
    2. Reading Trout Water by Dave Hughes (2010)
      • Excellent book on reading water. I’m rereading this before the start of the season.
    3. Trout Fishing in the Catskills by Ed Van Put (2007)
      • I listened to this on audiobook while driving around the Catskills. Highly recommended.

    Fiction Books

    1. Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells (2017-current)
      • I read the first five of these this year and enjoyed both the stories and inner dialogue.
    2. James by Percival Everett (2024)
      • Retelling of Huck Finn from Jim’s perspective. The two books should be read back-to-back in literature classes.
    3. There is no Antimemetics Division by qntm (2025)
      • Mind bending.
    4. Bonus: Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz (2025)
      • Cozy robot sci-fi that is positive and humanizing instead of depressing.

    New blog follows

    1. Bright Waters Catskills
      • A meditative Catskills-focused fishing blog by Mark Sturtevant, who I met at the Catskills Fly Fishing Museum rod making shop in May.
    2. Current Seams
      • Wet flies and the Farmington River.
    3. Saru’s photo blog
      • Great bird photos!

    Places

    1. Small brooks in the Catskills
      • I had a fantastic trip in May where I spent 5 days fishing small brooks in the Catskills for brook trout.
    2. Upper West branch of the Croton River
      • Closer to home, I enjoyed catching the small brown trout in the upper west branch of the Croton River. One of the few streams in Westchester where you can enjoy seclusion (probably because the trout are small). I love fishing there.
    3. Blue Mountain Reservation
      • This is at the end of our street. Charlie and I spend a lot of time there in all seasons. I’m thankful that such good nature is a short walk away.

    Purchases

    1. Acid reflux pillow
      • I feel like an old man posting this, but this pillow is so good. I have a hiatal hernia and frequently have acid reflux. This pillow allowed me to stop taking medication for it six months ago and get a good night’s rest. (Though it took me a month to get used to sleeping on it.)
    2. Double bearing quill for Shopsmith
      • Shopsmith went out of business and stiffed me on my new quill order. Skip from MKC came through and quickly shipped a custom machined quill to add another bearing to the old style single-bearing quills. It works great and eliminated my runout problems.
    3. Shopsmith universal lathe tool rest
      • Allows much more flexibility when turning on a Shopsmith. Glad I ordered it in January last year. They’ll be hard to find soon.

    Memories

    1. Picking wineberries with Charlie in the woods
    2. Doing Christmas cards together as a family
    3. Eating picnic snacks and meals together as a family in Charlie’s slide fort
    4. Bonus: Slinging Pizzas from multiple Oonis with Jon at Kristin’s birthday

    Things I’ve made

    1. Fly tying tool caddy
    2. Fly tying vise base
    3. Charlie’s slide fort

    Accomplishments

    1. Shipping the Internet Archive Wayback Machine Link Fixer plugin.
    2. Getting back into regular workouts. Crossfit 2x week at Peekskill Strength Crossfit.
    3. Catching my first brook trout.

  • Kebari Swap Recap Post

    My kebari swap recap post is live on Tenkara Angler!

    2025 Tenkara Angler Kebari Swap Recap

    Thanks again to Mike for letting me host the swap this year.

  • Week of November 24, 2025

    Short work week, long holiday week.

    On Monday after work and school, Charlie and I took apart my Shopsmith quill to figure out exactly which parts we needed to track down, since I’m pretty sure I’ll never get that replacement quill from Shopsmith. I filed a credit card dispute and ordered some secondhand parts. More on that soon. I also gave Charlie a broken lantern he could take apart himself.

    Wednesday Charlie and I ran a lot of pre-Thanksgiving errands while Amanda tidied up the house for guests. That afternoon Charlie helped us with some food prep. Amanda drew out a recipe for green bean casserole, and Charlie put it together all on his own! As one of Charlie’s teachers put it, even if you can’t read words yet, you can still read through pictures.

    Thanksgiving day we had the Crisante family over for a second year. That morning Charlie helped us prep and decorate. While Amanda made the cheese board, Charlie went and grabbed some of his favorite pretzels from the pantry and put them on the board. We weren’t planning on pretzels, but when your 4yo adds them himself and is excited to help, you leave the pretzels. We all munched on them. An hour before our guests arrived for lunch, we had some energy to burn, so Charlie and I went down to the pier to run around.

    We kept the menu the same as last year (and split up the work again) and had a great time. We started with a root vegetable soup for lunch, then went out for a walk in the woods. The kids played in the backyard while we cooked the turkey. We ate dinner, had some mint tea, then some apple crumb pie for dessert. The kids played together really well. Looking forward to it again next year.

    Friday Charlie and I went down to Tarrytown to pick up some coffee, visit Transom Bookshop (I bought Ray Nayler’s Where the Axe is Buried and Charlie bought Mac Barnett and Jon Klassen’s How does Santa Go Down the Chimney?), and check out the new DeCicco’s Market in Sleepy Hollow.

    For dinner that night I repurposed the leftover turkey into red curry soup, which I think I’ll do again next year. Much better than reheated turkey and gravy. Red curry paste, mushrooms, shallots, scallions, turkey, broth (which you can make from the turkey carcass!), coconut milk, cilantro, rice noodles, lime juice.

    Saturday we went to the Home Depot kids workshop to build an ornament, then we floated around Peekskill for a couple hours, hitting up the library (closed because the heat was out), Bruised Apple Books, and lunch at Copperhead Club. Charlie and I spent about an hour and a half outside while Amanda went horseback riding, then we made some cast iron pizzas and watched Despicable Me 4.

    Check out the excellent store map from Bruised Apple.

    Sunday Charlie and Amanda made cookies and I tidied the workshop and processed a log into blanks so I can turn some Christmas ornaments soon. Charlie came out to the workshop to tell me the first batch of cookies were ready, and he ended up helping me split the log and he took the bark off for me.

    Rainy day.

    Quote from Charlie this week, when he walked into the room while Amanda and I were chatting:

    Are you talking about me? I heard you say “cute”!

    I didn’t have a chance to make my batch of hot sauce over the holiday, but perhaps I will this week.

    I’m off to read more of Ray Nayler’s Where the Axe is Buried.

  • 100 Things I’m Thankful For (2025)

    The past couple years I’ve written this post at the end of December as kind of a year-end recap. This year I thought I’d change it up and do it on Thanksgiving instead.

    Here’s 100 things I’m thankful for this year. Happy Thanksgiving!

    1. Foraging ramps. I found a great spot this year near a river I like to fish. Win/win.
    2. Seeing many red efts.
    3. Participating in Trout in the Classroom.
    4. Finding some great Shopsmith parts at an estate sale so I can finally use the table saw component.
    5. Building an addition on Charlie’s swingset and playing on it for countless hours since.
    6. Catching my first brook trout in Fir Brook.
    7. Catching 62 brook trout and 63 brown trout.
    8. Picking currants with Amanda and Charlie at Fishkill Farms.
    9. Camping in Bald Eagle State Park with Mom, Dad, and Charlie.
    10. Cruising on Sayers Lake.
    11. Baking cinnamon rolls in the dutch oven with coals.
    12. Shipping the Internet Archive Wayback Machine Link Fixer plugin.
    13. Hosting the Tenkara Angler Kebari Swap.
    14. Improving my sleep and almost entirely getting rid of my heartburn and off of medication with the Medcline pillow.
    15. Starting a workout routine (Crossfit) again after ~8 years of not working out.
    16. Bike riding with Charlie.
    17. Charlie-led walks in the woods.
    18. Charlie’s new school. He is having a good experience with really great teachers who are kind, gentle, and teaching him how to name and handle his emotions, Spanish, and how to collaborate with others. It has been a challenging transition, but we think we are in a great, supportive school.
    19. Vacation on Cape Cod.
    20. Seeing a Great White shark in the wild for the first time.
    21. Seeing a Fisher and otter in the wild while fly fishing.
    22. Collecting shells, acorns, leaves, pinecones, and more with Charlie.
    23. Workshop time with Charlie, letting him tinker and try out various tools.
    24. Turning bowls, platters, and mallets for friends and family.
    25. Making a feather cup, vise base, and oak dish for fly tying.
    26. Making a net holder.
    27. Lunch dates with Amanda. We don’t often get dinner dates right now at this phase of life, but our lunch dates are great.
    28. My relationship with Amanda. Every year we grow closer and support each other more. My partner in all things.
    29. Exploring tying different pheasant tail patterns.
    30. Seeing the Little Free Library get regular use a year later.
    31. Involving Charlie more in cooking. He loves to help.
    32. Team meetup in Southport, NC.
    33. Birthday dinner at Bridgeview Tavern. Sipped a nice Hill Farmstead.
    34. Remembering to order a King Cake for Fat Tuesday.
    35. Mom’s help with Charlie the first week of school while Amanda was running a conference out of town for work.
    36. Finding a copy of James Leisenring’s Flymph book.
    37. The habaneros, tomatoes, radishes, borage, potatoes, and tomatillos from our garden this year.
    38. Pawpaw’s 90th birthday and fishing in my uncle and cousin in north GA.
    39. Being credited in Emma Christensen’s Hard Seltzer, Iced Tea, Kombucha, and Cider book.
    40. The Mid-Hudson Discovery Museum. It has provided us with hours of fun and some much needed adventures.
    41. My health. I had a big scare in March, a blood clot in my kidney, but it is resolved now and I was able to get off of blood thinners.
    42. Improving my cholesterol through diet and exercise, no medication.
    43. S’mores on the deck with Amanda and Charlie.
    44. Movies with the projector in the basement.
    45. Going to the “movie snack store” (the gas station) to get snacks for the movies.
    46. Slinging pizzas in the Oonis with Jon at Kristen’s birthday.
    47. Seeing a rosy maple moth in the wild!
    48. Birds finally nesting and having babies in our birdhouse.
    49. Replacing the siding on our house and painting the foundation.
    50. Still being employed. Lots of layoffs this year, but thankfully Amanda and I still have our jobs.
    51. Walking on the abandoned train tracks in Beacon in the rain with Charlie.
    52. Our Peekskill-area friend group. The parents support each other, the kids play well together, and we each host and invite people places. Good to have a community.
    53. Zoo trips with friends.
    54. Catching fallfish in Havelind Hollow.
    55. The sandwiches from Benny’s Brown Bag.
    56. My 3-month sabbatical. What a great break from work!
    57. Fishing for a week in the Catskills.
    58. Becoming more active in the Croton Watershed Trout Unlimited chapter.
    59. Seeing so many different kinds of native trilliums in the woods.
    60. Camping in the backyard with Charlie.
    61. Hearing Charlie calling back and forth with an owl.
    62. Seeing a snapping turtle lay its eggs.
    63. Ice cream at the Blue Pig.
    64. Dinner and ice cream at King Kone.
    65. Kayaking Constitution Marsh with Jay.
    66. Kayaking up the Croton River with Jay.
    67. Rowing on Lake Peekskill on July 4 with our friends.
    68. Visiting the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome for an air show.
    69. AAA. Saved our bacon when our engine died over the holiday weekend.
    70. Picnics and live music at the John C. Hart Memorial Library.
    71. Regularly getting library books out at the Field Library with Charlie.
    72. Picking wineberries with Charlie and him eating them all within the next 24 hours.
    73. Sausage and peppers at the Verplanck italian festival.
    74. Meeting friends at the playground.
    75. Running into friends on the Metro North train and sitting with them for the journey and having spontaneous conversations.
    76. My tiki-themed birthday party.
    77. Charlie’s 4th birthday party with great weather for the first time in four years.
    78. Ossining live music Fridays.
    79. NYC day trips with Charlie. Most recently, going to the Intrepid was fun!
    80. Snuggle naps with Charlie. I know we won’t get many more (we’ve gotten 2 in the last 6 months when he is completely worn out), but they are great.
    81. Charlie’s swim classes. He is doing so great! He now goes in the water with a teacher and the other students instead of all the parents.
    82. Amanda and Charlie’s art time.
    83. Our spider plant, ponytail palm, and string of pearls halloween costumes, and trick-or-treating in Lake Peekskill.
    84. Waterfront walks and bike rides with Charlie.
    85. Automattic’s NoHo space. I’m glad I don’t have to go in daily, but the occasional work day there is nice.
    86. Meeting Chris Johnson for dinner in Manhattan whenever I do go in for work.
    87. Charlie decorating the house for each holiday. “We need more decorations!!!”
    88. Seeing Charlie glued to the window during train rides.
    89. Bedtime book reading with Amanda and Charlie.
    90. Seeing freshly emerged dobson flies for the first time.
    91. Charlie tending to his strawberry plant and the pure joy on his face every time one was ready to pick and eat.
    92. Charlie’s excellent magnatile and duplo vehicle creations.
    93. Charlie buying a Hotwheels car with his own money for the first time.
    94. Stomping around in the creek with Charlie looking for crayfish and frogs.
    95. Kite flying down at the waterfront. Thankfully getting it unstuck from a tree.
    96. Using a sizzle plate for vegetables on the grill. Quick and easy.
    97. Setting a successful screentime boundary with Charlie with minimal fuss.
    98. Whale watching on Cape Cod.
    99. This blog and the connections I’ve made through blogging.
    100. Having a loving, kind, supportive extended family.

    Previous years: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2017