My friend Jon dropped off a couple ash logs from their property for turning, so I took one and turned some rustic bowls for his wife, Kristin, for her birthday.
Here is the log, marked for chainsaw cuts so I can saw out the pith.
After cutting:
The bark has some nice bug patterns:
Now to cut a blank on the bandsaw:
Roughing it out:
Sanding the outside:
Reversed in the chuck and ready for hollowing:
Loving these shavings.
Sanded and on a jam chuck to cut off the tenon:
Done!
The other half of the log had a bit of bug damage:
It came through nicely in the shaped bowl:
I finished both bowls with Tried & True Original (raw linseed oil + beeswax).
I wrote this post as a starting point for other people wanting to do the same. I don’t claim to have done everything correctly or in the best way. Feel free to change and adapt to suit your needs.
Dimensions
Platform is 5’x8′ and raised 5′ off the ground.
Roof is 6’x12′ and raised 7′ off the platform in the front, 6′ in the back.
If I redid this, I’d probably go 8’x12′ for the roof.
Materials
Wood
I went with all pressure treated since it is going to be exposed to the weather.
The original A-frame swing set had two angled leg brackets. For adding on a slide platform, one of the sets of legs needs to be perpendicular to the ground, so you need a 90deg bracket. Eastern Jungle Gym was out of them, so I found a less expensive alternative.
2 instead of 4 because with the 5×8′ platform, there is no room for the concrete holders on the swing set side. They aren’t really needed on that side because there is a lot of structural support from the swing set itself.
You can get any slide you want as long as it is a 5′ platform mount. Check Craigslist or Facebook marketplace. I bought one new because I couldn’t find a used one that was in passable condition.
Warning: This thing clicks when spun. I didn’t know that when I bought it. You can break the clips inside to make it stop, but I didn’t do that because Charlie likes the clicking.
I saw this on a playset at my aunt and uncle’s house, and Charlie loved it.
I don’t have specific links, but I went to the local TSC and bought some rope, a pulley that fit the size of the rope, a screw hook to hang it on, and a heavy duty feed bucket that won’t crack when dropped from 8ft up with rocks in it.
Assembly
n.b. I didn’t go into extreme detail on all the steps, cuts, lengths, etc. I added photos and basic dimensions, so you can definitely figure it out. I didn’t work from plans either.
Replace the A-frame bracket on the side you want to put the platform on.
This is a bit tricky because you have to hold it up while you replace it. I unscrewed the 4×4 legs and the bracket, then stood on a trestle ladder and held the swing set up while Amanda pulled out the legs. Then I slid the old bracket off, slid on the new one, and Amanda put the legs back in. Then I put the screws back in.
Attach the first 2x6x8 on the perpendicular swing set legs, top 5′ off the ground and level with the ground. Use the structural lags.
Level and attach the two 4x4x12s.
Set out the two outside concrete post holders, add the 4x4x12s, and clamp fit the 2×6 (cut to a 5ft length) to the other posts. Make sure everything is level in both directions, and make sure the outside length of everything is 8ftx5ft, not the inside length.
Add the 2x6x8 outside beam.
Add the inside floor joists, also from a 2x6x10 cut in half.
Add the 8ft deck boards on top. Make sure you screw them down to every joist, or they will warp. Notch the corner ones to fit around the posts.
Add the ladder. I made mine 30in wide, and there is a full deck board gap in-between the rungs. Cut an angle in the 2x4s at the top so they lay flat. Attach a stake on the side so it doesn’t bounce when kids climb up.
Climb up and add the railings. I know my spacing isn’t even, but that is to allow lifting things up into the platform, and also to discourage climbing them. They are just a bit too high for Charlie to scale, but making them even would have been climbable. Leave the appropriate spacing for the slide!
Add the slide.
Add the bucket, handles, and other accessories.
Add the roof.
Attach the 5 supports to the posts. They need to be long enough for a rafter to sit on the outside, so 63″ long total, with an inch and a half hanging off each side. I put mine 7ft high in the front, 6ft high in the back (so a 1ft drop over 8ft, which is a 1.5:12 pitch.) I wanted Amanda and me to be able to stand in there comfortably.
Add the 12ft rafters, two on the outside and two in the inside equally spaced.
Cut the rest of the post off flush with the rafters.
Add the purlins, with the roof mounting strips attached before you put them up. Make sure they are aligned correctly or you won’t be able to put the roof panels on.
Add the roof panels! You have to screw them in from the top, so plan accordingly. The first two panels are easy. You can stand on a trestle ladder on the platform. The third will require a regular tall ladder and preferably someone to hold it.
Done!
Charlie has been enjoying it every single day. He loves it. We’ve also had three family picnics up on the platform for dinner since it has been up and that has been the best.
Ideas for the future:
I could see us enclosing the far side and making the entire thing a climbing wall when Charlie is bigger.
Staining the whole thing to protect it longer and make it look better.
Maybe a rope or chain ladder instead of the wooden ladder?
Quick project from a couple weeks ago: Turning a handle out of walnut for a hook remover.
Hook removers are great for quickly unhooking fish without touching them (which can harm their protective mucus layer.) You just hook them on your tippet, run them down and over the hook, and the hook usually slides right out (especially if you use barbless hooks, which you should.)
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 though I wasn’t targeting them, fallfish are fun to catch. They take flies, even dry flies, and they fight hard like trout. They are a lot of fun on a tenkara rod.
See the little white bumps on the head of those one?
I looked it up when I got home, and that means it is a spawning male. The bumps are called nuptial tubercles. That makes sense, because a little while later I saw two fallfish redds (nests) downstream of this. Both were large mounds of pebbles, 1.5-2ft in diameter, with lots of small fish around them.
Fallfish males build the nest mounds out of pebbles, one stone at a time. Spawning is communal, although usually initiated by the nest builder, with a number of females and surrounding males using a single nest.
I did release everything I caught today, and I didn’t disturb the redds. Once I noticed them, I moved to a different pool.
Check out the video, it will be very clear where the redd is.
A few other neat things I noticed around the stream today:
Another set of tracks that I think are muskrat. Note the five toes, and short prints (front feet) aside long prints (hind feet).
All in all, a great day on the stream. I’m going to keep this stream in mind in a couple years when Charlie is ready to learn how to cast a fly rod. The fallfish are fun to catch and there is plenty of casting room here. One section had some good pools without trees nearby. Also a good place to practice reading the water and detecting strikes.
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 Lobby (not actually that close to me… it is almost 45 minutes away) for a bag of leather remnants, a hole punch, and some waxed string. I’m not sure how Hobby Lobby does it, but they beat Amazon on their prices, at least for leather working tools and materials.
This afternoon I learned some of the basics of leather working and made a net holster of my own.
Laying out the remnants and figuring out the fit.
The net has this unique bend in the end that helps me hold on to it because it is made from a wild (muscadine) grape vine. That means the holster needs to be wider than the main stem of the handle because the bend needs to get all the way through the holster.
Super glueing the pieces and punching the stitching holes.
Saddle stitching.
Trimmed and oiled.
On the fishing belt:
One mistake I made: Not measuring the buckle of the belt and making my holster fit the main body of the belt. Squeezing the buckle through took me a good five minutes of effort.
This was my first foray into leather working. I’m sure I’ll make more things in the future now that I know the basics!
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 week:
Charlie’s play fort
Leaky shower
Siding replacement
Charlie’s play fort is coming along nicely. I finished the main structure on Monday, added a bucket + pulley on Tuesday, and added the slide, handles, and a pirate ship’s wheel on Wednesday. Tuesday and Wednesday nights the three of us had picnic dinners up on the play fort, and it was lovely.
The leaky shower was less fun. As I was showering Wednesday morning, Amanda came upstairs to let me know that she could hear water running into the kitchen ceiling, directly below the shower. I opened up the access panel, and sure enough, it was wet.
It looked like it was mostly coming from around the lip of the tub, so I recaulked where the tile meets the tub and around all the escutcheons. While that was drying, I decided to double down and fix some of the small tiles that had popped up by the tub. I glued them down and regrouted.
I was feeling accomplished until later that night when I tested the shower and found a new leak I hadn’t noticed before, this time coming from the water volume control knob. It took some architectural archeology to find the source and some internet sleuthing to find the solution. I ended up replacing the cartridge in the middle of the volume control and that solved the problem.
Side note tip: Kohler doesn’t publish PDFs of their parts diagrams like everyone else. It is locked inside a javascript app at scout.kohler.com and under the hood they are in SVG format. Kind of annoying, but at least they are available online.
Let me tell you, the 30 seconds between turning the water main back on in the basement and racing back up to the second floor to see if there were any leaks were sweat inducing for multiple reasons. Thankfully no leaks. Now I need to cover the access back up and put Charlie’s closet back together.
The siding project took less work on my part, but more coordination. We hired a siding company to do it for us. I don’t have much to say about the company, they are on par with other contractors we’ve worked with. We wanted to start the beginning of April, then that was pushed to this week, and they finally started Friday. Despite those delays, I think they completed about half of the work in a single day.
Unfortunately, we had a severe thunderstorm Saturday night, while our house was without gutters and only half the siding was on. Water started coming in around the sliding glass door. Not the contractors’ fault, just bad timing. Hoping to have the work wrapped tomorrow.
This week revealed to me just how much DIY work as been done on our 97 year old house. It has had many, many owners. Three different layers of siding, the sliding glass door was clearly added long after that back wall was built, cut off pipes abandoned under the tub, the access panel cut into and patched over multiple times, the shower valves screwed in from the now-tiled-over side instead of the access panel, etc.
And I’m certainly not making the problem any better. Just adding another layer, more holes, new screws, and fresh grout. I guess that’s just how houses evolve.
Charlie has found the siding project very exciting. He ran to grab his camera when the materials delivery showed up and he wanted to be outside when the crew started working. Sunday he helped me pick up nails with a magnet bar.
I fished one of the wild quality streams in the Croton watershed on Tuesday. I had some strikes, but didn’t land any fish. It was good to explore that new-to-me stream and take notes of the good holes for the future. I noticed a few Blue Quills hatching, so I tied some at home later that night, intending to try them out the following day, only to be waylaid by the leaking shower. So it goes.
I helped with another trout release on Thursday. I caught some large Dobsonfly larvae and Stonefly nymphs, as well as a blacknose dace in the kick net. Saw another water snake! This time the students were a bit younger, so I kept my waders on and stood in the river while they released the trout at the bank, just in case. I spotted some nice 8in trout coming out from under the far bank to feed, perhaps on the newly released fingerlings.
Friday night we had our friends Colin and Hayden over for dinner. We were all too engaged in conversation to take photos. Colin recommended An Immense World.
Saturday was a rainy day. We did some grocery shopping, got our sillies out on the pier between raindrops, and visited Transom Bookshop in Tarrytown.
Sunday Charlie and I went to a carnival with the Crisantes. Our very big 3.5-4 year olds rode a lot of rides themselves! Some we still had to ride with them, though. They are still little after all.
It is the official start of Hose Season.
This is Charlie’s “Stew Stick”.
I got a grommet kit and made a couple loops with grommets to go on my fishing belt for things to clip on to. I have a drawer full of things like webbing, different threads, a speed stitcher, and various other DIY materials. The grommet tool is a great addition. That drawer makes future projects possible.
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 use.
After I finished up a different project in the workshop and had a bit of free time, I grabbed a chunk of mimosa wood and went to work.
First I roughed out four spools.
Next I turned them a bit thinner and sanded them the best I could.
Then I took them off the lathe and separated them.
Then drilled center holes.
Then back on the lathe for more sanding, this time with a different set of jaws. I got this set for turning smaller ornaments, but it comes in handy for things like this.
Then, like last time, I drilled the holes for the magnets, glued them in, and finished with some Tried and True Original.
The original mimosa blank had a crack on one side, so the final spools have a slight crack, too. I’m using that natural crack instead of cutting a notch to hold the line.
They work great on the river!
Next time I think I’m going to skip the original roughing step and just cut out spool-sized blanks from the cylinder, drill the center hole, and then put them on the lathe to cut the line groove and sand them. Roughing them out with a bedan or parting tool with the grain running in this direction gives too much tear out.
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 some succulents and caudiciforms, moved dirt, planted some seeds, and got the car cleaned.
Wednesday Amanda spent the afternoon with Charlie, so I worked out in the workshop. I cleaned, made two more french cleat tool holders for lathe tools, and started a turning project on the lathe that I still need to finish.
Thursday I took Charlie to the Mid Hudson Children’s Discovery Museum in Poughkeepsie with another daycare family. We all had fun. It was a beautiful day, so we had lunch outside there by the river. Later we helped them move some mulch.
Friday Amanda, Charlie, and I met up at the Bronx Zoo with three other families. In hindsight, going to the zoo on a holiday weekend during spring break might not have been the best idea. It was very crowded and kind of chaotic. We had fun though. I was the designated wagon schlepper. We taught some other folks our pro move of stopping for Italian sandwiches on Arthur Ave before going to the zoo, which is infinitely better than the zoo food (and lines).
Saturday Charlie and I went to Home Depot to get some lumber to start a slide/play fort addition to his swingset, then Amanda and I spent a couple hours getting it started.
Charlie also told us he wanted to grow strawberries, so we took him to pick out a plant and a pot for them to go in. He is in charge of watering them.
Sunday we started with a 7am Easter Egg hunt in the backyard (Charlie spotted them from the upstairs window as soon as he woke up). Mid-morning we went down to the waterfront to fly a kite and play on the playground. After lunch we worked on the swingset addition some more.
Most of the week was chilly, but the weekend really warmed up and spring is now in full bloom. The weather station recorded a high of 86.9°F on Saturday! We all got some much needed sun.
A book I was a recipe tester for is now out! Emma Christiansen takes all of the guesswork out of these recipes and they are excellent. If you are interested in fermenting drinks, pick up this book.
Puttered around in the backyard and the workshop in the rain with Charlie. He checked on the radishes, organized his workbench, and drew a picture for me.
One of the things I love about Charlie is how inquisitive he is and how much he notices. While putting some air in our tires, he noticed the shocks and asked why there is a spring connected to our tires. We talked about it, then he checked behind the other tires, too.
We spent the rest of the week in northern Georgia visiting family. My cousin finished his Master’s degree and my grandfather turned 90, so my aunt threw a dual grad/birthday party for them and a lot of family came to town to celebrate.
Charlie did great on the plane again.
Amanda and I lived in Atlanta for a summer before we got married, and traveled back a few times for work after that. So the first spot we stopped for dinner after getting our rental car was Fox Bros BBQ. We needed some chicken fried ribs with white sauce (tip: you can get them as an entree!) and brisket. This is the second time Charlie has chowed down on brisket, so I think we’ll need to hit more BBQ places in the near future.
The party was nice and it was great to get some family time. Charlie had a blast running around with his cousins. Last August when we visited they mostly played independently, but now they played together a lot more, had their own conversations, and got up to shenanigans.
Charlie’s grandparent time is wonderful to watch. The three of them are so sweet together.
It is also great to see Charlie becoming more comfortable with and opening up around the rest of the family.
Charlie on the porch with Pawpaw.
We stayed with my parents at a place in the mountains.
North GA is about a month ahead of NY. The dogwoods are blooming, violets and wisteria are everywhere, and the trees are leafing out.
I showed Charlie some fiddlehead ferns while out on a walk. He said, “I call them lizard tails.” And you know what? They look as much like chameleon tails as they do fiddle heads. So now we call them lizard tails, too.
My uncle and cousin took me out fishing one afternoon. We had a couple hours free, so we drove to a stream in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest.
Uncle Kevin caught one rainbow, I hooked one but it jumped off the barbless hook before I landed it, and Wyatt got a bite. My uncle and I both used a futsu-style kebari with our tenkara rods, Wyatt used a bead head nymph with his rod and reel.
It was my first time using the DragonTail TinyTalon 245, which just arrived on Tuesday. I’m still getting used to it, but the short length was great for this mountain stream with a tight canopy. Easy to pack, too.
Uncle Kevin is the one who got my started on tenkara, so it was nice to chat with him for a while about how we each rig our rods, what flies we use, the various mods and gear we’ve made. And nice to get out on the stream together, even if we only had about 90 minutes of fishing time.
Kevin and Wyatt made some nice leather net holders for their belts, and passed along a tip: Get a cheap bag of leather remnants, which are perfect for small projects like this.
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 how it works.
Shopsmith’s website has had the speed reducer out of stock for a couple years, so I called customer service and they said they don’t make them anymore. I’ve been hunting for one online since I started turning bowls last fall, and my eBay alert finally went off for one at a decent price (while I was in the hospital of all places), so I bought it right away.
The speed reducer provides a 7:1 speed reduction ratio. So, instead of its usual 700 to 5200 rpm speed range, the effective range is from 100 to 5200 rpm. This makes turning large blanks and roughing off-center stock much safer. At the initial stages of turning the platters, the lathe was starting to hop around like a washing machine with a comforter all shoved in one side. Pretty nerve wracking. Most standard lathes can go down to between 50 and 150 rpm, so if you plan on using your old Shopsmith Mark V primarily as a lathe, it is worth tracking down a speed reducer.
So, with the speed reducer connected and clamped down, I roughed out the round-ish blank I cut on the bandsaw at around 100 rpm, then shaped the bottom of the bowl and cut a mortise at around 300 rpm.
Then I removed the speed reducer and put the bowl in the Nova chuck with the jaws inside the mortise to hollow out the bowl.
I was doing this after Charlie went to bed one night, but I had to stop mid-hollowing because it was getting late and I was getting tired. You’ve got to be alert and focused when pushing a sharp piece of metal into a piece of wood rotating at high speed.
I picked it up again two days later. The bowl had warped slightly from drying, but I had enough left to take off that it didn’t matter much. In less than an hour I finished hollowing, shaping, and sanding the bowl. (I sanded with 80 > 120 > 220 > 320 > 0000 steel wool). Then I applied a coat of Tried & True Original and let it dry on the lathe overnight.
The next day I turned the lathe on to give the bowl a quick buff with 0000 steel wool, then took it off and put a but of finish in the mortise.
In the fall, the New York State Department of Conservation sends trout eggs to schools. The students watch them hatch, learn about them, and care for them until spring, when they take a field trip to release the fingerlings into the wild.
Last Thursday they released brown trout. Today (and the photo above) they released brook trout.
During the field trip, the students also learn about the local watershed, test the water quality, and do some macroinvertebrate (bugs!) identification.
That is where our TU chapter comes in. Before the students arrive, we put on our waders and go out into the river with a kick net and collect samples of bugs in the stream, and set up identification stations for the students to check out. Then we give a short introduction and float from group to group to answer questions and help them identify the bugs.
It was a lot of fun. Cross River is an incredible stream, running through a protected area (Ward Pound Ridge Reservation), and the water quality is excellent. It only took us 10 minutes each day to collect more than the amount of macroinvertebrates we needed for the stations.
We found:
Stoneflies
Rock caddis
Stick caddis
Free living caddis (green)
Net spinning caddis
Scuds
Cranefly larvae
Crayfish (lots!)
Mayflies (multiple species)
Hellgrammites (Dobsonfly larvae)
Water Pennies
Nematodes
We even had an adult early stonefly land on the table so we could point out an adult stage of one of the nymphs.
A mixed sample containerUpper left: Stick cased caddis. Two mayflies, a stonefly, and a hellgrammite. Nematode, Crane fly larvae, hellgrammite, rock cased caddis, and lots of tiny mayfliesStonefly, Mayfly, nemotode, rock cased caddis, and net spinning caddis.Crane fly larvaeWater Penny
Some different kinds of caddisflies:
Net spinning caddisRock cased caddisStick cased caddis and a rock cased caddis togetherCased caddis outside of its caseCrawfish and some mayflies
I liked the charts we used for identification, so I found the PDFs online when I got home. I printed and laminated copies for myself to keep in my fishing bag!
I was taken aback at how big the stoneflies were. At least size 8 hooks. The hellgrammites and craneflies were huge, too. I need to tie some bigger flies.
I’ll no longer give the side eye to folks who tie mop flies, because I’ll be damned if they don’t look just like the crane fly larvae. The killer bugs look just like them, too.
Afterward everything goes right back to the river.
Of course, after the students leave we have a bit of free time to head upstream and fish for a bit! Last week I caught an early black stonefly hatch on the stream. All around great day!
I helped with a trout release and macroinvertebrate identification for a school field tripe with Trout Unlimited
I checked some things off my to-do list around the house
I cleaned up my workshop and started turning a bowl with my new old Speed Reducer
I spent lots of time outside
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 without hookups.
A few highlights:
I caught an early black stonefly hatch Thursday afternoon when it warmed up to 70F. I was surprised by how much more effective my tenkara rod was during this brief window. I got 2-3x as many drifts in as the guy with the western rod downstream of me, and also had 2-3x as many takes for the hour of the active hatch.
During the hatch, a large creek chub took my pheasant tail parachute! I didn’t know they’d rise just like trout.
I saw some nice sized fish in the water.
I saw a fisher! It is the first time I’ve seen one. It was darting in and out between rocks across the stream from me. Probably trying to catch a trout, too.
A watersnake swam by me in the river. We left each other alone.
Lowlights:
I forgot Tuesday was the first day of the regular “take” fishing season, so there were a ton of spin fishermen out. That is fine, they are out having fun, too. Unfortunately, I ran into some pretty rude folks who walked up and started casting right next to me, giving me zero space, and a guy who stomped right through the water I was actively fishing. I packed up, ate lunch, and drove to a different spot.
Tips for avoiding them in the future:
They usually stick to the deep pools. They can’t fish the riffles and pocket water very effectively with their spoons and rapalas, so fish those instead of the pools.
They don’t usually wade, and they move spots quickly. Be patient.
They often stick to the stocking points, so either go to wild streams or hike a little bit away from the stocking points (usually road overpasses).
While helping my friend Dave level out a part of his backyard by hand, my phone started dinging like crazy. I had a dozen text messages in the span of 5 minutes. My coworkers were texting me that Automattic laid off 16% of the company.
I’m a bit shocked. I had no idea, and five great people who report to me were let go.
I am thankful to still have a job, but it is going to be strange coming back to a company and team that looks very different in three months.
The market isn’t looking good this week. I am feeling grateful that I pulled out the money for our imminent siding project early Wednesday morning before the worst of it.
Thursday I helped the local Trout Unlimited chapter do a trout release and macroinvertebrate sampling with a school field trip. It was a lot of fun! Longer post on it soon, but we found:
Stoneflies
Rock caddis
Stick caddis
Scuds
Cranefly larvae
Crayfish (lots!)
Mayflies
Hellgrammites
I’m helping with another one tomorrow morning.
Lots of fun outside in the warmer weather with Charlie.
First time using the Shopsmith Speed Reducer to turn below 700 RPM. Took me six months to find one for a reasonable price. It reduces the speed by a factor of 7, so the new base speed with it on is 100RPM. Very handy for roughing out big stock without the machine jumping all over the place.
Made good progress, but need to stop for the night. Probably will finish it off on Monday.
The forsythia is blooming, our radishes and cilantro are sprouting, violets are coming up in our yard, and the bumblebees are loving the daffodils.
Light fly tying this week. Just some Killer Bugs (the only takes I had on Monday were on Killer Bugs… I tried multiple flies and got takes when I switched back to Killer Bugs, but nothing on the other things I tried) and some elk hair caddis to finish out a gift box.
A bird finally took up residence in our birdhouse after no interest the last two years.
Charlie is very excited about it. We are, too. Can’t wait to see the baby birds.
Some small house projects I got done this week:
Fixed the door closer on our front screen door.
Added a handle at Charlie’s height on our back screen door. He can reach the one inside, but there is a step down outside and he can’t reach the outside handle. Now he has his own.
Hung a pot rack on Charlie’s play kitchen.
Re-hung a towel hook that got pulled out of the wall in the bathroom. Now it is screwed in to the stud.
Epoxied my cracking wading staff.
Relocated some rose campion that migrated out into the yard to the flowerbed out by the shed.
Sowed dill, lemon balm, and seeded some bare spots in the yard with clover seed.
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 down and trying to get work out of my head.
I’ve heard it takes about two weeks to mentally disconnect from work. I know I had parental leave, but that was completely different. A newborn and sleep deprivation makes everything else disappear effectively.
This time around I’m planning on doing a lot of fishing this first week. My gear is packed and ready to go.
How did I spend my first weekend?
The first night I made a celebratory drink, an Angostura Colada. A side note: I’ve always wanted one of those large format (16oz) Angostura bottles, so I finally bought one. This drink takes a lot of bitters!
Saturday we all worked outside together. We:
Cleaned out the flower beds
Cut back dead plants
Seeded bare spots in the grass
Moved the compost bin and partially buried it to keep animals out. It got moved when we put the fence in, so we needed to put it back.
Direct sowed some seeds:
Champion radishes
Breakfast radishes
Cilantro
Amaranth
Borage
Nasturtium
Bachelor’s buttons
Put up a new swing for Charlie, replacing the baby swing that he has outgrown. We got him a circular saucer-style swing. It was three times as difficult to put together as I expected. The QC on the pieces is not great…I had to re-drill some of the holes because they were at the wrong angle to get the bolts through.
Ate lunch and snacks outside
My weather station reported that it reached 79.2F (26.2C) that day!
Later that night I also did our taxes. Not fun, but I also didn’t want to waste my valuable daylight time on that.
Burying the compost bin was a success. It rained that night and the next morning we saw little muddy raccoon prints on the outside trying to get in.
I got an out-of-the-blue message from Matt with some kind words about an old blog post of mine that came up for him in a Google search. (Yes, that Matt.) What a delight to receive such high praise!
What would young me, just beginning to blog in 2008, think about that?
Working at a coffee shop with my love.
Charlie loves to dig.
Updates on medical stuff:
I visited a vascular surgeon, who was consulted while I was in the hospital. He reviewed my most recent CT scans and concluded that my vascular system looks completely normal (aside from the kidney blood clots). No cholesterol build-up, no blockages, good blood flow, no structural abnormalities. So that is ruled out as a cause. Good news overall, but still no clear answer on the clots. Next step is cardiology.
“Charlie, do you have dreams when you sleep? What do you dream about?”
“I dreamed about fishing. And daddy was there!”
My heart. I think we’ll spend more time over at the local pond catching bluegill soon! I didn’t realize his first fish made such a big impression.
Fly tying corner
I wanted to tie some Hare’s Ear and Plover, but plover is a bit hard to come by these days. I think the barring on hen pheasant makes a good substitute.
I got a couple hen capes in different colors, so I tied some flymphs, too. More of those to come.
Win: At the secondhand store I found some Belding Corticelli Buttonhole Twist silk thread, which Leisenring mentions in The Art of Tying the Wet Fly. It isn’t Pearsall’s Gossamer, but for $1 each I couldn’t pass it up.
I found a photo from the Trout Unlimited chapter’s fly tying night last month:
I fell down an internet research rabbit hole last week after noticing a cool book plate on a book about fly fishing and fly tying at the Internet Archive. You can follow along here as I go deeper down the hole next week:
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 the hematologist was unremarkable. Still don’t know what caused my blood clots and whether or not I need to be concerned going forward. So, seven more vials of blood sent away for more tests. The tests are to rule out genetic factors since I don’t have lifestyle factors of concern (young, don’t smoke, active, not obese, general blood markers are in normal range), and I haven’t had injuries that could cause clots in recent memory.
This coming week is it the vascular specialist, the following week my primary care doctor.
Perhaps the tiredness is from the extra mental overhead of dealing with this, the uncertainty, and feeling kind of crappy about handing off things at work that I had hoped to have buttoned up and/or shipped before sabbatical.
I found a new vegetable CSA! The one we were a part of for the past five years abruptly ended at the end of the last season, which left us scrambling. I noticed a small sign while driving one day, went back the next day to copy down the phone number, and gave them a call. Looking forward to giving it a try.
A brief list of things to start off my sabbatical:
Fly fishing! On day one, I plan to put my gear in the car the night before, pack a lunch for Charlie and one for me, drop him off at school, and drive directly over to a stream and not come back until the afternoon.
Helping the local Trout Unlimited chapter with trout releases for their “Trout in the Classroom” program. I signed up for a couple half-day sessions.
Bowl turning
Carving some small troughs
Adding a platform and a slide to Charlie’s swingset
I got a new weather station set up finally. My main hold up was that I wanted it on the roof, but it is a real pain getting up there, which I’d have to do to clean the station. Instead, I decided to attach a pole to my fence. Not the ideal location because there is a building and some trees nearby that interfere with the wind, but still better than the last location and better than having to get on our steep roof regularly.
I have the data syndicating to Weather Underground and PWS Weather, and I plan to set up more later this week.
Hoping to pick up an outdoor air quality monitor next.
Charlie did not want to be at Trader Joe’s and wasn’t shy about it. Our cashier saved the day by suggesting that he decorate a “special bag” with stickers that she’d use for our groceries while she scanned our items. Worked like a charm.
Later, at BJ’s he was being a ham. “Daddy, take a picture of me over here!”
While showing Charlie how to hold a pencil:
“I have another way to do it. Just grab it!!”
That’s definitely my kid. Those words could have come out of my mouth.
Thursday, after picking Charlie up from school, we drove through town instead of our normal way home. He spotted the library, pointed it out to me, and asked to go in a look for a Peppa Pig book. Sounds great to me! We had some time to kill, and going to the library is something we’ve been encouraging.
Then, once we went in, he actually told the librarian what he was looking for, which is big. Every other time he was too shy.
Unfortunately, all Peppa Pig books were checked out, so we picked out some others. Then he got to learn about how to place a hold on a book and get an email when it comes in.
Later, when another kid wasn’t playing nicely in the library play area, he handled it very well. And when it was time to leave, he helped clean up the blocks and kitchen set he was playing with.
Overall very mature afternoon for a little guy.
Two more sweet moments with Charlie this week:
Amanda needed to take an early train into the city, and Charlie wanted to get a muffin from the coffee shop by the train station. It was a bit chilly in there, so he wanted to sit on my lap while he ate.
Later that day Charlie wanted to work in the workshop. I wasn’t feeling great and I was tired, but I took him anyway because sometimes a little guy needs a win.
Spring update:
Even more crocuses bloomed, the daffodils are blooming (Charlie loves them), and woods walks are popular again because it isn’t too cold.
I’ve been a little stressed about my garden because we are going to be gone for a week right in the middle of when we’d need to tend seedlings inside. Last year when we were gone for a week almost all of my seedlings died and I had to start them over. My heart can’t take that again, so I think I’m going to get tomato and pepper seedlings from a greenhouse after we come back and tend to them until Mother’s Day. Hudson Valley Seed Co is about 90 minutes away, which will make for a good day trip. Everything else I’ll direct sow.
Fly tying corner
Wet flies, nymphs, and flymphs this week.
I’ve been reading a lot about wet flies and flymphs recently, so I ordered some hen capes to tie some flymphs (the black flies above are the first of those). I’m also on the hunt for a copy of The Art of Tying the Wet Fly & Fishing the Flymph by Leisenring and Hidy.
Update: After typing that, one popped up on eBay for less than half the cost of other copies I’ve seen. I bought it right away.
The black flymphs are size 16 and I’ll use them next week since the early stoneflies are appearing.
I really like that I’ve tied all of these with dubbing I’ve made myself. I really like the spiky squirrel dubbing and plan to tie more flymphs with it this week.
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. Lots of tests and consultations later, I learned that I have blood clots in my kidney and no one is quite sure why they are there. So I have lots of follow up appointments with specialists coming up and I’m on blood thinners.
The pain is almost gone, though I still occasionally have a dull ache that comes and goes. I had no idea blood clots were painful.
Unfortunately I have lots of brain fog right now and find it difficult to focus, think clearly, recall things, etc. I don’t feel sharp, and it is incredibly frustrating.
That’s where I’m at. I’m hoping to learn this week, when I visit a hemotologist who ordered a lot of special blood tests, what likely caused the clot, whether or not I need to be worried going forward, and whether or not I need to take blood thinners for the rest of my life.
This was first time being hospitalized, getting CT scans, EKGs, IV medications, etc. Not a fun week. I feel like I’ve been jolted into middle age.
A few things come to mind last about week (with assistance from looking through my photos):
In Peekskill, Bucko! shut down and the Bantam Tools folks (Bre Pettis) opened a machine art gallery.
For the first time I remembered to order a King Cake before they were all sold out or too late. It came on Fat Tuesday and it was delicious. Charlie was fascinated with the baby. I intended to make red beans and rice for dinner, but work got away from me and I didn’t plan well enough, so I didn’t. Maybe next year.
My parents came to visit last weekend (pre hospital) and we had a nice visit. We ate at Slainté in Peekskill, Meyer’s Olde Dutch in Beacon, and Chipotle to support the local library. We also went and checked out the Amawalk Outlet, the pier, and played outside and inside.
One evening Dad and I figured out how to refill SodaStream CO2 canisters from a larger tank. The trick (besides for the right adaptor) is to freeze the receiving tank for a temperature differential and flip the main tank upside down. Also to open the valve very slowly to avoid blowing the pressure pin. Weigh the small tank before and after.
We also recharged the freon on a small cooler/fridge in my basement, and cloned two old Mac laptops.
I did some good fly tying last week pre-hospital, and some frustratingly slow and crappy fly tying this week post-hospital.
Pre:
I’m proud of the hotspot gnats, peacock and purple wet flies, and the hot glue ants. The pink squirrel variations and different nymphs were experiments to see what I want to double down on and tie more of.
Post:
The basic worms, zebra midges, and leeches took me all day Friday to tie (usually 2 hours max), and the Sexy Walt’s with the fur hackle took me a couple hours (usually under an hour). Bleh.
That’s all I’ve got. Here’s to feeling better and sharper this coming week.
post-publishing addendum:
The world outside seems to have woken up this week. Swamp cabbages, garlic, tulips, and peonies have all emerged out of the ground. Crocuses bloomed and the daffodils look close.
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 US.
On Friday we had a birthday party at our house with our friends, and we mixed up tiki drinks for everyone and catered some asian fusion from Ramenesque.
I was too caught up in hosting and hanging out with friends to take photos during the party.
Meg Walter took a photo of the cocktails. Amanda made stirrers with my face on them:
Screenshot
Amanda also made a cool menu with the cocktails I mixed up:
I batched them a couple hours before so they were easy to serve.
For you rum connoisseurs, the various Jamaican rums I used were Smith & Cross and Appleton Signature for the Quarantine Order, and Hamilton Pot Still Black for the Banana Mai Tai.
The next morning Charlie wanted to open a couple of the coconuts we bought for decoration. We saved the water and coconut meat to cook with this week. Probably “The Stew“.
Saturday was very windy. Charlie wanted to walk out on the pier, and we had trouble walking at times!
Saturday evening Charlie and I hung out with the Lake Peekskill Dudes and kids while the Lake Peekskill Ladies hung out at a neighbor’s house for a Ladies Night. We had pizza, the musically inclined played music (including Charlie!), and chilled.
Spring is finally on its way.
Flowers are emerging about two weeks later than the past couple years. Daffodils and crocuses only started peeking through the ground this week. In 2023 the daffodils popped out of the ground on Feb 14 and by then the crocuses were already blooming! In 2022 I noticed the daffodils on Feb 18.
Robins are out in full force pulling up worms from the thawed ground.
We finally have enough daylight after work/school to play outside for a bit before dinner! Very much needed and appreciated.
Amanda had a migrane early last week. Charlie was concerned, and looked at her head closely for a moment and said, “Momma, I think your head just had a bad day.”
On the fly tying front this week, I tied some soft hackle wet flies with my homemade dubbing, some Japanese Lantern sakasa kebari, and my take on “what if a Pink Squirrel were a sakasa kebari?”.
I also submitted an article to Tenkara Angler, which got accepted and published.
Sunday we hung out at home and did some grocery shopping. Charlie was feeling extra snuggly and Amanda and I both read a bunch of books to him today. Charlie and Amanda did a little puppet show. We played at the FDR State Park playground. I made pasta e fagioli for dinner. (Charlie isn’t into soup yet, so I made “cheesy pasta” with butter and parmesan out of the noodles, which he happily ate.)
That’s all I have for this week. Lots of party prep. I’ve been reading a couple books on wet fly fishing. No workshop time this past week, but I’d love to get out in the shop one night this week as long as work isn’t too taxing. I’d like to turn a couple tool handles or another bowl. I got some carbide lathe tools for my birthday that I am eager to try out!
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 year hiatus. I started off last year with redoing my workshop:
Then I replaced our garden beds, built Charlie a sandbox and his own workbench, turned some things on the lathe, and made a Little Free Library. Then I learned how to face turn bowls and platters on the lathe (a goal of mine for the past five years!) and leveled up my sharpening game.
This is a small one, but brings me a lot of joy: I made a really great hot sauce from the red savina peppers I grew, and I eat it a couple times a week. I can’t wait to make more next year.
When I am too exhausted, ill or busy to work in my shop, I will shuffle down the stairs to my 15′ x 25′ workshop and simply stand there for a few minutes with my hands on my tools.
Chris Schwarz
This quote from Chris Schwarz in The Anarchist’s Tool Chest pops into my head about once a week. The best way to get out of a funk is to start making something. This has helped me a lot this year and I’m always glad when I have, even if it means I slept a bit less that night.
There were some pretty big challenges this year, particularly related to work and parenting, but we got through them. I’m not going to lie and say I’m better for it because I’m not sure that is true. They did take their toll. I learned a few things. Overall they make me thankful to have Amanda as my wife, partner, and helper.
I blogged more this past year than I have in the previous six years! I hope to keep that up, I feel like I’ve settled in to a good cadence of weekly updates and posting projects.
In the fall I got into fly fishing again, which is a great way to get out in nature and recharge. It also meshes with something I wrote last month:
There is so much in our own communities that we ignore/miss/tune out/don’t notice. One of my goals this year is to explore and experience where I live in new ways.
This is an extension of trying to lean into the seasonality of this region. Noticing how the brook in the woods changes from season to season. Keeping an eye on the wineberries so I can pick them at peak ripeness. Noticing when certain wildflowers emerge. Which birds are around when.
Taking it a step further, I’d like to see the same place from a new perspective. I’d like to walk or ride my bike some places we normally drive and experience it at a slower pace. Fish a spot we’ve only driven by. Try catching some striped bass where I normally row my boat. Have coffee in a new park. Go to different playgrounds with Charlie.
Related, I haven’t been much into clubs in my adulthood, but I recently joined my local Trout Unlimited chapter and am starting to get more involved. I went to a fly tying night, signed up for the annual dinner next month, and volunteered to help with their website.
In the past year we’ve enjoyed being more intentional with our friend group. Perhaps getting involved in a club will scratch that itch as well.
So, what do I want my thirty-fifth year to look like?
Take care of my health. Read more, scroll less. Prioritize family time. Make things. Keep improving our lives & surroundings.
How is that going?
Take care of my health.
For the most part, I’d say this year was an improvement over the last. I’m sleeping better (magnesium!), hydrating more, and have better gut health (probiotics!).
What isn’t going better is my overall stress level (mostly work-related). I’m looking forward to that going to zero during my sabbatical, which starts in a month.
Where can I improve this coming year?
Stretch more
Move more
Read more, scroll less.
I’m inconsistent on the scrolling less part, but I know I’m better at it when I don’t have social apps on my phone, so I just deleted them again while writing this.
My reading has declined a little bit once I started tying flies late last fall, since I do that late at night when I’d otherwise be reading. Perhaps I can start listening to audiobooks at that time?
Prioritize family time.
I think Amanda and I have been pretty good at this! We take the time to recharge individually when we need it and that allows us to be more present with Charlie. We are a good team. Some of our favorites include family art time, woods walks, cooking together, taking care of the garden together, playing in Charlie’s sandbox, playing with Duplos/magnatiles/bristle blocks together on the living room floor, and reading to him.
The key is the daily connection time in all four relationships in our family (Amanda and me, Amanda and Charlie, Charlie and Me, and all three of us together), and for the most part I think we are doing pretty good on that front. Sometimes we get it wrong and need to try again, but we do and I think that is what counts.
Make things.
See above. One of the best years in recent memory for this.
Keep improving our lives & surroundings.
This year we replaced our fence, stained the deck and shed, replaced the trellis on our deck, replaced the garden beds, built Charlie a sandbox, replaced the washer and dryer, put in a sump, put in a radon mitigation system, redid Amanda’s office, and signed a contract to have our siding replaced in April. Feeling pretty good about all of it. Always more to do, but moving in the right direction.
What do I want my thirty-sixth year to look like?
More local and seasonal focus. More time outside. Daily connection with Amanda and Charlie. Take advantage of ideas/inspiration/excitement when it strikes. Keep making things.
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 squeezed in a visit to the USS North Carolina battleship on the way back to the airport. We mostly hung around the house and worked.
At the USS North Carolina, the analog computers fascinated me. All of those gears doing complex calculations!
This reminds me that I want to read George Dyson’s Analogia, Paul Nahin’s The Logician and the Engineer, G. Pascal Zachary’s Endless Frontier, Vannevar Bush’s Pieces of the Action, and Simon Winchester’s Exactly.
I dusted off my Canon 6D, and even though we didn’t get out, I snapped a few shots inside. Here are Mark, Klaus, and Eoin:
It was good to get my SLR back out. I need to do that more.
We ate a lot of good meals, but the best was this plate of grits with red peas, tomatoes, and zucchini from Southern.
I video chatted with Charlie and Amanda while I was gone. My favorite part was Charlie grabbing the phone and saying, “Daddy, come on!” and carrying me around to show me stuff. I got some great screenshots.
Saturday Charlie and I got out of the house for the afternoon and visited Anglers Den to pick up some fly tying materials, then went and checked out the east and west branches of the Croton River.
Later that night I tied some black jun kebari and tried out a few techniques for using oversized soft hackle on smaller hooks.
This morning Charlie helped me make waffles.
Then Charlie and I went grocery shopping and visited a bookstore in Ossining we hadn’t been to before, Hudson Valley Books for Humanity. A lovely store!
Amanda, Charlie, and I went to Retake Remake, a local art supply thift shop, to look for some project materials. I picked up a $4 grab bag of different colors of wool yarn to turn into dubbing!
I am good on greys and browns from making dubbing from fur a couple weeks ago, but I wanted a couple more colors: Ginger, olive, green, and black. I had planned to dye some fur in these colors, but when I saw the variety packs of wool yarn, I thought I’d give that a shot. Wool is nice for wet flies because it holds water nicely, and the added weight makes it easier to cast.
Like before, I blended the wool (cut into 1/2in pieces) in a coffee grinder.
For the ginger, I used 1/2 orange, 1/4 brown, and 1/4 tan.
For the black, I used 2/3 black and 1/3 the Oxford color, which is black with a bit of grey mixed in.
For the green, I used some unpictured light green and dark green yarns.
For the olive, (better in the below photo), I used the green from above and added more brown and a bit of grey.
The original uses Ginger Angora Goat, but I think this wool makes a decent substitute. I’m pleased with the color compared to the original.
I am also pleased because, even though I didn’t have any green flash, coloring regular pearl flash with a green permanent marker seemed to do the trick, and it held up under the faucet.
More of these Squirrel and Gingers to come! I like the look of squirrel fur as hackle. I might made a couple sakasa versions for fun, too.
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 for spring.
If this isn’t the most 3 year old parent thing:
“Charlie why does your hair smell like cinnamon toast?”
Giggle giggle giggle
Charlie has been really engaged with the Duplos and Magnatiles lately. He builds all kinds of different vehicles and buildings. He usually won’t let me take photos of them, but he did let me take photos of two this week.
The coolest one I’ve seen him build so far was two towers, each with a set of wheels on the bottom and a cab on top, connected about 3/4 of the way up with some long flat pieces. Imagine Tower Bridge on wheels. I loved it.
Amanda noticed Charlie singing a song to himself while playing with Duplos. He likes to make up short songs. This one got me, though:
Put your tears away, Daddy will fix it for you
🥹
Amanda made an art wall for Charlie’s art in the basement play area. Easy to swap out pieces as the makes them!
After years of battling crappy inkjet printers, I bought a wireless duplex color laser printer. I feel like I’ve finally made it.
Charlie, of course, liked the box.
We had another great swim class this weekend. Charlie was very brave and practiced jumping in, followed directions really well, and wore goggles for the first time.
Notion put out a fun face generator this week. Here is the one I made and the one Amanda made:
The only critique we had is that they need more face shape options. These are both too round for our actual faces.
Fly tying corner
What I tied this week:
Simi Seal leeches, size 14
Improved Montana Stonefly, size 10
Little Black soft hackles, sizes 12 and 16
Wednesday night I went to the local Trout Unlimited Croton Watershed chapter’s monthly fly tying night, which they started again after a couple year hiatus. There is where I tied the black soft hackles (using starling). I got a few tips from the old timers, one of whom knocked out 18 (!) emergers in just under two hours. Incredible. I’ll be back next month to learn more.
Amanda, Charlie, and I went to Retake Remake, a local art supply thift shop, to look for some project materials. Amanda picked up some felt and embroidery thread, Charlie was thrilled to fill a bag with crayons and get a tiny stapler, and I was surprised to find some old fly tying materials. It was split up into the different material bins, so I’ll have to go back and see what else I can find. I also picked up a $4 grab bag of wool yarn and blended a little bit of it into dubbing.
One thing I’m excited to try: I read about two methods for tying in large/oversized soft hackle feathers in a way that will fit them appropriately on a smaller hook. More on that soon.
No workshop time this week.
Work continued to be demanding and stressful this week. I’m working on it in earnest while simultaneously very much looking forward to my upcoming sabbatical.
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 late nights. This happens from time to time. Hoping for a normal week ahead.
Even with the late nights at work, I got in a little bit of woodworking and fly tying to wind down after Charlie went to bed.
I tied:
Some futsu kebari with the dubbing I made
A pheasant tail futsu
Some large sakasa kebari for murky spring runoff
Next up on the fly tying front:
Some more bead head nymphs
Some Japanese lanterns
Some jun kebari (soft hackle, not reversed)
Dyeing some marabou feathers (olive) and coyote fur (ginger).
I also turned an oak platter, which I wrote about here:
The day Charlie had to go to the doctor, Amanda and I switched off working and childcare like usual. I took Charlie to the post office and then to the local bookstore, where he found some train books and magazines. We bought one and it is popular! Big into trains right now.
Friday night I went to dinner with my friend Dave. The wings and drinks at the new Copperhead Club are pretty good!
Beforehand Charlie and I picked up Five Guys for Charlie and Amanda. While we were there:
“Daddy, do you want to eat some peanuts? I got these for you!”
Saturday Amanda had a friend over for some crafting and hanging out, so Charlie and I got out of the house for a while. We went to the Mid Hudson Discovery Museum in Poughkeepsie and had a great time!
Afterward we picked up some Detroit-style pizza at Hudson & Packard (which I’ve wanted to try for the last two years). I was underwhelmed. Baci’s Detroit is so much better! The dough has more depth and the sauce has more flavor.
The Hudson River up in Poughkeepsie had a lot of ice.
Between 8pm and midnight Saturday night it snowed about four inches. Charlie and I went out and made a big snow mound Sunday morning. Amanda joined us later for some more fun. Then Amanda and Charlie made a snow slushie!
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 white oak family) blow over during a storm. My parents went down for a visit and my Dad and uncle milled the tree into slabs. Dad blogged about it here:
Some of those slabs eventually made their way to me and have been drying in my garage.
For the first platter, I cut a circle out of the slab, which had bowed a little bit. This was very difficult to turn, as the blank was completely out of balance. My lathe shook a lot even at the slowest speed. So for the next one, I paused and planed the slab down flat before I cut out a blank, which helped a lot with the balance. It is almost impossible to get them completely balanced because wood doesn’t have a uniform density.
The turning process for a platter:
Flatten the slab to balance it out.
Cut out a circle on the bandsaw.
Attach a faceplate and turn the bottom of the platter to the profile you want. I generally do some push cuts in toward the center to flatten it out in relation to the lathe, then mark and cut the mortice, then cut the profile. All done with bowl gouges.
Sand the outside.
Flip the platter over, remove the faceplate, then put the four jaw chuck in the mortice.
Shape the rim.
Hollow out the cavity.
Here is a video of part of the hollowing process:
Sand the inside. I use a progression of 80-120-220-320-400-600-0000 steel wool.
Apply finish. I used Tried and True Original (raw linseed + beeswax), which dries and hardens.
These are both between 10.5 and 11″ in diameter.
These are the first two platters I’ve made, and it was definitely a learning process. They are going to my aunt and uncle as a thank you for the wood.
Now that I’ve made two different styles, I think I prefer the kind with a flat bottom and steep sides. More coming in the future form different species of wood! Amanda wants some out of pine and walnut.
We are going through a phase where dinnertime has been a struggle most nights, but we’ve had two high points this week: Two nights where Charlie has eaten dinner without a struggle, he also initiated family storytelling, where he picks a theme and tells us a story, then Amanda and I have to tell a story that fits with the theme. Sometimes two people tell a story together, sometimes all three of us. It lasts at least 20 minutes and is a lot of fun! Looking forward to more of that.
Speaking of dinner, last week’s meal plan was helpful, even though we did it out of order. Here is this week’s:
Leftover fajitas
Pork tenderloin with green beans
Pasta with garlic, olive oil, broccoli, and chicken meatballs
Chicken shawarma bowls
Charlie’s…gastrointestinal distress is ongoing. That plus the cold means that we’ve been spending a lot of time at home inside. Charlie usually loves being outside, but he does not like being cold, and no matter how much we bundle up, temperatures in the teens are just too cold for a little guy. We’re all feeling a bit cooped up.
Wednesday night I tied some peacock herl soft hackle flies. I plan on tying more of these, but adding a floss rib. I’ll tie some with stiff hackle, too.
The method I like for reinforcing the fragile peacock herl:
Swipe some superglue on the hook shank
Wrap the herl around tying thread and wrap together
Reinforce on the outside by wrapping in the opposite direction with wire or floss
Thursday night I tied some Cutcliffe-style flies. These take stuff hackle and curl it back so it kind of looks like soft hackle, but keeps its shape better. I went down the Cutcliffe rabbit hole, starting with an article on Tenkara Angler, then a video from Adam Reiger, then eventually I found Cutcliffe’s actual book on the Internet Archive and started reading it.
The next day I called up David at Feather Emporium to chat about feathers, because I found the coq de leon tailing feathers to be too long for these flies. He agreed, and is going to put together a variety pack of shorter spade hackle feathers in different colors. I never would have gotten there online… sometimes picking up the phone is the best solution!
Friday night I only managed to tie a few killer bugs while watching a show. I was tired from a busy work week and picking up Charlie earlier than usual that day on account of the stomach bug.
Saturday I heated up the workshop, found my old beard trimmer, and made my own dubbing blends.
Not a very productive week on the woodworking front. Tuesday night I intended to turn another platter, but I broke three different screws in the bowl blank. That hasn’t happened to me before! I turned a small bowl that night instead.
I spent a couple hours planing down that blank and cutting it out of a slab, so I didn’t want to toss it on the burn pile. Home Depot didn’t have screw extraction bits small enough, so I ordered a set online. When they came in, they didn’t really work for these screws, so I decided to just drill out the screws and hope that the hollowing is deep enough for it to not be a problem.
I switched to using exterior deck screws with torx heads.
Hopefully I’ll turn it one night this week.
AWS has been charging me ~$2/mo for the past year for some reason I don’t fully understand, and I’ve been locked out of that account. I finally got access again and am trying to navigate the labyrinth to disable whatever is still running there. Something is feeding metrics to CloudWatch to the tune of ~$2/mo, which of course you can’t just disable in CloudWatch. Wish me luck.
Tonight I experimented with making my own dubbing blends from squirrel, coyote, and raccoon fur.
What’s dubbing, you ask? It is the stuff you twist around thread to make the body of a fly. Usually made from animal hair/fur, plant fibers, or synthetic fibers.
I hunted the squirrel back when I was a teenager and my Dad and I tanned it together. The coyote and raccoon tails my Dad harvested and froze, then we skinned them out after Christmas.
The process was basically taking an old beard trimmer, cutting some fur, then blending it in a coffee grinder with some add-ins to get the color and consistency I wanted. For flash I added a bit of Ice Dub, for color I added wool yarn.
Here is squirrel belly + tan ice dub:
Squirrel belly + rusty brown ice dub + red wool yarn:
The squirrel back fur has longer, lighter colored outer guard hairs + a fine layer of gray underfur that blends up brilliantly. I must have shot the squirrel in the winter, since it has thick underfur. The coyote tail has a nice layer of underfur, too.
I learned that the coffee grinder blends really well, and it cuts the Ice Dub or flashing material, but it won’t really cut the hair/fur. So I needed to cut the fur to length with scissors before blending. Here is coyote:
Here is what I ended up with. Top row has synthetic flash blended in (hard to tell without moving to see the light catch it), bottom row is all natural.
With the exception of the red, these colors are just from squirrel, coyote, and raccoon. Lots of natural color variation! By being selective I got a wide range.
Across the top:
Squirrel belly + tan ice dub
Squirrel belly + red yarn + rusty brown ice dub
Coyote tail + yellow ice dub
Squirrel belly + squirrel back + pink ice dub
Squirrel back + purple ice dub
Bottom row:
Squirrel belly + squirrel mask
Squirrel belly + squirrel back
Squirrel back
Coyote tail
Hair from the dark rings of a raccoon’s tail
Here is my set compared to Hareline’s “most popular” set. I didn’t have a natural box to compare with, which is why I wanted to make my own in the first place.
I couldn’t resist tying a few nymphs with it. Nice and buggy!
This whole set of dubbing barely made a dent in the squirrel pelt, raccoon tail, and coyote tail. I doubt I’ll have to buy any dubbing for the next ten years.
In the Spring I think I’ll do another batch focused on colors, probably using some dye. I think the coyote and the lighter rings on the raccoon tail will take color nicely.
I enjoyed making my own fly tying wax and now my own dubbing. I’ve also been tying with deer hair and squirrel hair from animals I’ve harvested myself. So what’s next? Perhaps harvesting my own feathers or dying my own bucktails.
