Chuck Grimmett

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  • Week of November 18, 2024

    The cold weather is here, and I am happy to have it. It snowed on Friday, but melted overnight.

    Given the weather, I’m in full hearty meal mode.

    • I made my first lentil soup of the season, my favorite.
    • Beef roast with tomatoes and garlic, served over orzo.
    • Shepherd’s pie with the leftover beef roast.

    Charlie was home sick on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. That made for a challenging work week. He was vomiting, but had full energy and was bouncing off the walls, which is a recipe for chaos.

    On the project front: I’ve been trying to work on something for an hour or two each night after Charlie goes to bed.

    One night this week it was finishing a lathe project I’ll post about soon.

    Another night I tied a bunch of Ishigaki kebari in different colors and sizes 14 and 16 hooks.

    Another night I cut a bunch of bowl blanks out of glued together pieces of 2x6s. I’ve only done spindle turning and I want to learn how to turn bowls, so I’m taking the turnawoodbowl.com course and need a bunch of blanks to practice on.

    I completely rebuilt the inside of my workshop at the beginning of this year and I thought the next phase was going to be making upgrades to my old Shopsmith, but I’ve decided to get serious about sharpening instead.

    The goal of the workshop upgrades was to be able to walk out to the workshop and immediately get to work on something instead of wasting 20 minutes moving things around, finding the right tools, and getting by set up. Big progress on that goal so far!

    Upgrading the Shopsmith to make it safer and more capable would be very useful, but that isn’t really my bottleneck right now. It is still very functional and I did upgrade the bandsaw table already, which has been helpful.

    Right now the main bottleneck is keeping my tools sharp, particularly my lathe tools. I have a couple jigs to sharpen on the Shopsmith itself with the disc sander, but changing tools to sharpen is a pain and eats into the already limited workshop time I have.

    I think it is time for a semi-permanent sharpening station with some higher quality equipment so I can sharpen what I am using in a minute instead of twenty, and without frustration. This investment will save me time in sharpening and save work time, too. Sharper lathe tools cut cleaner and faster.

    My current plans will allow my to sharpen other tools quickly, too. Bench chisels, hand gouges, hand planes, and maybe even my planer knives. I’m hoping to get everything set up this week.

    I’m also becoming increasingly convinced that lathe work is mostly easy when tools are sharp, but they dull faster than you think and the sharpness to difficulty cliff is steep.

    I don’t know why I didn’t think of this 5 years ago. This planer was essentially dead space when not in use, but now I can put a router table, miter saw, or bench grinder on here.

    I got Charlie outside a decent amount this weekend. We walked some of the carriage trails at Rockefeller State Park (and he climbed some big rocks) in part because I wanted to take a look at the Pocantico River, which is a potential fishing spot. It is stocked, and while some local forums say that it gets fished out every year, I simply don’t believe that. The river doesn’t show signs of being heavily fished beyond a few spots without tree cover. Most of it is narrow pocket water and it is still flowing despite the drought. I bet there are holdovers in spots that aren’t on the path and don’t suit themselves to using a standard fly line, and I bet I can fish them with my tenkara rod.

    We also spent a couple hours at the playground and park on Sunday, and Charlie had a great time.

    I went to the premier of a documentary about the 100 year anniversary of the Bear Mountain Bridge today, which included some interesting notes about how they maintain it.

    Afterward, there was a panel discussion and someone asked why the Bear Mountain Bridge is still in good shape after 100 years while the Tappan Zee Bridge, the bridge just south of the Bear Mountain Bridge, had to be replaced after 62 years because it was in bad condition.

    The panelists leaned into their mics at the same time and said, “Leadership” and pointed at one old guy off to the side, Harry Stanton. He led the NY Bridge Authority starting in the 1980s and decided to double down on maintenance of the historic bridges and do it all in-house. They still follow the philosophy he set today. By comparison, the Tappan Zee is run by the NY Thruway Authority.

    I love how the subtitle of the film is “The First 100 Years.” They intend to keep maintaining and using the bridge as long as possible.

  • Week of November 11, 2024

    I’ve been working on other people’s blogs at work all day, time to post on mine.

    Downtown Peekskill with Amanda and Charlie on Monday evening. We went to dinner at the Irish place, and we also checked on the Little Free Library and exchanged some books.

    We had another tough weekend with Charlie, so I’m trying to remind myself of the high points this week:

    • Lots of time playing trains, Hi Ho Cherry-O, and Mancala
      • Charlie won every round for three nights in a row. Incredible beginner’s luck.
    • Grocery shopping together and Charlie requesting a Pomelo, so we got it and tasted it together at home.
    • Planting garlic
    • Cutting up a 2×6
    • Pumping gas
    • Learning how to use a chalk line
    • Reading books together
    • Going for a 3 mile bike rode together (he sat in the seat attached to my bike for the first time this year).

    Charlie, while in the bathtub:
    “Daddy, are you finkin what I’m finkin?”
    “What are you thinking, bud?”
    “We take the garbage and flush it down the toilet!!!”

    I’m suddenly pretty glad I preemptively bought that toilet auger two weeks ago.

    The rhetoric about non-natural fibers in clothing being “endocrine disrupting” smells like nonsense to me and I can’t find actual proof of it being a problem. It is okay to just say you prefer the feel of cotton or flax. You don’t need to make nonsense claims to position it as morally superior.

    I only see hypocrisy, false promises, and contradictions so far from Trump’s cabinet picks and statements. It is amazing how short of a memory the American electorate has. If you are optimistic about Trump’s reelection, I guarantee you will be disappointed. If you are upset about Trump’s reelection, you will continue being disappointed. More of the same.

    Sometimes I question whether or not the AI doomers truly believe that AI will kill every human within our lifetimes. If they did, I’d expect more radical (read: forceful) action than talking about it on podcasts.

    If you truly believe we are all going to be wiped out anyway, what is the downside? Certainly the EA folks have done a Bentham-esque calculation on this.

    It is hard to take people seriously if they have a fundamentally asymmetry between their beliefs and actions.

    I am very organized, but I have such disdain for tax and insurance paperwork that I just throw it all in a physical box and forget it. Amanda thinks this is crazy, but it works. When I need one of those papers, I open the box and rummage through it. I always find what I need.

    We refer to it as “The Box”, and it is roughly stratified by year. There is at least five years worth of paperwork in the current Box. I hate The Box, but it is an unfortunate necessary part of life.

    This came to mind because I rummaged through The Box to find FSA-related paperwork. I found it in about 30 seconds. No need for folders, binders, labels, etc. The Box works.

    Dudes talk a lot about how much hair loss sucks (and it does!) but no one prepared me for how horrifying it was when the lady cutting my hair asked me if she could trim my eyebrows.

    I forgot to post this a couple weeks ago, but I made an angled cover for Charlie’s sandbox to keep the rain from pooling up in the tarp that was on there.

    In the first meeting of a new book club last night we discussed Le Carré’s A Perfect Spy. Next month is Updike’s Pigeon Feathers. We are essentially using this book club for accountability to read books we’ve wanted to read but haven’t made the time for. By knowing we will talk about it together we’ll actually read them. We are a small group and meet virtually, let me know if you are interested!

    I tied some flies this week.

    • Soft hackle pheasant tails, size 14
    • Killer Kebari, size 14
    • Zebra midge, size 16
    • Yarn worms, size 14

    The worms are an experiment to see if the wool yarn will work if I seal the ends with resin. I don’t really like chenille.

    I know midges are usually tied smaller, but size 16 are the smallest hooks I have right now. I need to get some 18-24. Tried some different beads on those.

    I like the look of the partridge feathers more, but find the hen feathers much easier to work with.

    What’s next:

    • Back to tying tenkara flies, both sakasa and jun kebari style.
    • I want to tie some streamers with yellow marabou. I have a pack of white marabou, which is more than I’ll use in a couple years, so I’m going to try dying some of it. I got a book on natural dyes, and I think I might use some plants from the yard to dye it.

    Here are the flies I took out fishing on Friday and Saturday, all tied by me.

    I fished the Amawalk outlet on Friday, and explored more of the section below the Wood St Bridge. I hiked a long ways to explore, but I didn’t catch anything. Bummer. I found another scrape, though.

    Saturday morning I went to Boyds Corner outlet, the first stream in the West Branch section of the Croton River. Much better day! I didn’t lose any flies despite lots of low tree limbs, the light soft hackle fly landed where I wanted it to most of the time, and I read the water better and found a lot more feeding fish than I did before. I was able to use a single fly the whole time (a size 14 soft hackle pheasant tail that I tied myself).

    The stream I fished was super low because of drought, so it was mostly pocket water. The Dragontail Mizuchi triple zoom rod I have is perfect for this situation. I was able to pick apart the pockets quickly and change the rod length based on the surroundings.

    I’m feeling pretty good about getting noticeably better, especially on the casting, but I need some help: I had a lot of takes and some of the fish even jumped out of the water taking my line with them, but I wasn’t able to land any of the takes. They jumped off the hook before I got them in. So, I have something to research more and improve upon. I think it might be either how I’m trying to set the hook, or not keeping tension with the rod after hook set.

    Don’t get me wrong, it is wonderful to see them jump and to get to watch as a fish takes a fly I tied. I still had a great day, but I’d really like to get them in the net.

    I’ll be back to Boyds Corner for sure.

    I finally bottled that hot sauce I made.

    A nice Thursday morning walk in the woods.

    Until next week, I hope for more time to make things and blog about it. I usually do that after Charlie goes to bed, but tonight I had to go back online at 8pm to fix a problem. I’ll try to make up the time in the workshop one afternoon.

  • Week of November 4, 2024

    Short post this week. I need to get some sleep. It has been a long week and I am tired. This work week was stressful and parenting was difficult. Optimistic that next week will be better.

    I made my own rosin and fly tying wax this week.

    Making Rosin and Fly Tying Wax

    I tied a few flies this week, too. Four different kinds of nymphs.

    I picked up my first bobbin on September 12. In under two months, I’ve tied 111 flies, made a bunch of my own tools, gathered some of my own materials, and learned a ton. Mostly in the evenings after my son goes to bed.

    I plan to tie more nymphs this week. Probably some with soft hackle, and probably more of the Dave Whitlock Red Squirrel Nymph.

    It occurred to me that “get a rise out of” is a phrase from fly fishing! Trying to get the trout to rise to the surface to take a fly.

    I don’t look at my blog’s traffic stats much. I checked tonight for the first time in a while and the top post for the past six months is about building a climbing wall for my son. That brings me so much joy. I hope that post has led to climbing walls getting built for kids.

    Adding a Climbing Wall to an A-frame Swing Set

    My friend Jeremy Wall did a public reading of some of his recent writing at Stanza Books in Beacon on Thursday. I went out to support him and hung out with some of the other writers afterward. Half of them were young parents like Amanda and me, and we had a great conversation about making space for your art and hobbies as a parent.

    I spend Saturday at the WordPress NYC meetup, which was hosted at Automattic’s office. I was the staff rep for the day. The organizers are trying to reboot the meetup again. We hosted a helpdesk, and had 10 people show up with a wide variety of WordPress questions.

    Being in Manhattan gave me the chance to pick up some things for Amanda’s birthday (a cake from Milk Bar and a gift from Charlie).

    Birthdays look a little different with a toddler. Amanda and I coordinated ahead of time to get her out of the house for a few hours so Charlie and I could decorate and he could do the surprise. It was precious to see him show Amanda the decorations and give her a gift.

    Our tradition used to be going to one of the NY steakhouses for a birthday, and we are keeping that somewhat alive by cooking a classic steakhouse dinner at home.

    Sitters are hard to come by. We had a nursing student who was great, but she got a job as a full time nurse. The high school student who was also great is now at college out of state. Another high school student who we liked is at college a couple hours away.

    Some limited thoughts on the election:

    • I was surprised by the results, which I guess means that I need to update my priors.
    • My prediction: It won’t be as bad as the left thinks, but it will be worse than the right thinks. That was my prediction in 2016, and I think it held. I’m sticking with it.
    • I hope this breaks the two party system.

    If you are a longtime reader, my political beliefs haven’t changed much, I’m just less outspoken and radical about them. My focus is elsewhere after wasting too much of my 20s on that. I’m more pragmatic and less idealistic now, which I think is mostly a symptom of being older and having more life experience.

    I’m listening to the rain while writing this. It is the first rain in two months, and it is very welcome.

  • Making Rosin and Fly Tying Wax

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    Two weeks ago I scraped some pine resin off of a pine tree. This week I turned it into rosin, then blended it into fly tying wax.

    What is rosin?

    Rosin is the stuff musicians rub on violin bows to help them grip the strings better and produce better vibrations. Baseball pitchers use it to grip the baseball better, too. It is also in the core of some solders as flux. When added to wax, it provides tackiness.

    Rosin is a brittle substance made from pine resin, essentially heated until the natural turpentines boil off. Rosin made this way is darker. The lighter clear stuff you see for sale in music shops is made by chemically separating and distilling out the turpentines and pine oils.

    Collecting pine resin

    I took a walk in the woods at the end of my street and found the pine resin I needed on the third pine tree I found.

    Filtering

    Some guides I found tell you to just burn the pine resin and it will turn into rosin. The problem is that most resin contains lots of bark, leaf pieces, bugs, etc. This stuff all turns into carbon when burned, so you have carbon + resin, which is essentially pitch. Useful stuff too, but I wanted just rosin, so I decided to separate it out. The best way I found to filter it is to dissolve the resin with acetone, then strain it through a coffee filter.

    Refining

    Once you have filtered acetone+resin, it is time to boil the acetone off. Acetone has a low boiling point (~132F), so I used a crock pot with oil in a double boiler setup and the acetone mixture in a small metal cup lined with aluminum foil. It took about an hour to boil off.

    I recommend not using an open flame, as acetone is pretty flammable. This small crock pot lives in my workshop for tasks like this.

    Next the natural turpentines need to be boiled off. They have a much higher boiling point, around ~350F, so I used a propane burner in a double boiler setup for that. With the acetone gone, I was much less concerned about it catching fire.

    This took another hour, and after it cooled I got ~10g of brittle, crumbly rosin. Exactly what I wanted.

    Fly tying wax blends

    I wanted to make three different blends of wax for fly tying:

    • Dubbing wax – A medium-soft sticky blend to apply directly to thread in advance of adding dubbing
      • Rosin: 70%
      • Beeswax :10%
      • Oil: 20%
    • Hard wax – A hard sticky wax that needs to be slightly warmed and softened before use, used for adhesion/sticking things in place to keep them from moving when you are tying them on. You can also wax your thread with this to keep it from unwinding if you don’t have a bobbin to keep tension. Sometimes called Cobbler’s wax or tying wax.
      • Rosin: 50%
      • Beeswax: 40%
      • Oil: 10%
    • Soft wax – A soft sticky wax made for a quick swipe of the finger to make your fingers a bit tackier for dubbing material. Not made for applying to the thread directly, just your thumb and index finger.
      • Rosin: 20%
      • Beeswax: 30%
      • Oil 50%

    I used these two resources for ratio inspiration:

    For the oil I used castor oil. I was going to use something like generic vegetable oil or grapeseed oil, but when I looked it up I learned that castor is thicker, tackier, and more viscous than cooking oils. I found some at the drug store, where it is sold as a laxative and as a hair product. Who knew?!

    I thought about using duck fat for the soft wax, but the only duck fat I had on hand was saved from dinner, tinted red and smelled like paprika and garlic, so that was out.

    I did a bit of math to figure out the allocation of rosin to each blend, then calculate the other ingredients based on the amount of rosin in each. I weighed them out with a sensitive scale.

    I set up a double boiler again on the propane burner, this time with water instead of oil, and melted down each set of ingredients. It took me 3x as long as I expected to melt this stuff down. The rosin took a long time to soften to the point where I could blend it in with the beeswax and castor oil.

    Once liquified and blended, I poured each into the appropriate vessel or mold.

    • The dubbing wax went into a small twist-up stick I salvaged from some old sunscreen we had for Charlie when he was a baby.
    • The soft wax went into a small jar, salvaged from some cosmetic samples Amanda was done with.
    • The hard wax I poured into a silicone ice cube mold.

    I let the wax set and cool for 24 hours, then tested it out. They are all appropriately sticky, which was the goal of making the rosin.

    Both the dubbing wax and the soft wax allowed me to make a dubbing noodle on regular thread with no problem after applying this wax. Pre-wax it wouldn’t stay.

    The first is a green hot butt nymph with a green dubbing body. The second is a Dave Whitlock Red Fox Squirrel Nymph. Tail is fox squirrel guard hair, dubbing is the squirrel’s under fur and a bit of ice dub. I hunted the squirrel myself. Size 12 fly.

    I’m pretty happy with the outcome, even though working with the small quantities of rosin was a pain. Even this small amount is likely to last me a couple years, so not much need to make a larger batch unless someone else I know gets into tying and wants some.

    I might melt and transfer the dubbing wax from the twist-up stick to an old Burt’s Bees chapstick container for the smaller size. We’ll see.

  • Wool Yarn Body Frenchie Nymphs

    Trying out some jig hook Frenchie nymphs with Shetland Spindrift wool yarn bodies instead of traditional pheasant tail bodies.

    This is my first time using the pheasant tail feather my Dad found, and my second time using dubbing. I’m getting better at the dubbing, but still inconsistent.

    I’m going to sleep on it, then pick a body color to tie more of. The darker Grouse (235) is closer to what the pheasant tail bodies look like, but the lighter Autumn (998) has some lovely reds and greens, and looks a bit like hare’s ear. The yarn looks buggy! I’ll probably try some traditional pheasant tail bodies, too.

    Hook: Moonlit TOGATTA ML502 barbless jig hooks
    Thread: Wapsi Ultra 140, red
    Bead: 3.0mm slotted tungsten, gold
    Thorax: Hareline Ice Dub, UV pink
    Body: Shetland Spindrift wool yarn, Moorit & Shaela, Grouse, or Autumn
    Rib: Wapsi Ultra brassie wire, copper
    Tail: Pheasant tail

  • Week of October 28, 2024

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

    This weekend I showed him how to fix his stuck loader bucket by oiling the joints. He did it himself on his workbench.

    We spent some time in the woods on Saturday. It was a beautiful day.

    We also raked leaves.

    I got some time in the workshop this week, mostly in the evenings.

    • I successfully turned the pine resin into rosin! Full length post with more details coming soon.
    • I got back on the lathe and turned some prototypes of things I don’t want to post about yet because the next version will be a Christmas gift.
      • Next on the lathe I’d like to learn bowl turning.
    • I started making a net for fly fishing from a nice branch I found in the woods. It is currently wrapped around a form to dry.
    • I made a French cleat tool holder for some of my lathe accessories.
    • I put a magnet on a piece of wood for taking better photos of flies.
    • I made a small gadget for cutting zonker strips for tying zonker streamers. Essentially a few razor blades bolted together and separated by nuts to cut 1/8″ wide strips.

    Charlie and I cleaned out the gardens and put away a bunch of outdoor furniture today. Then we we and picked up some wood to make a better cover for his sandbox that won’t let water pool up in the center.

    We did a Trunk or Treat at Charlie’s daycare on Halloween (kudos to Amanda for the decorations!) and then trick or treated with friends in Lake Peekskill that evening.

    Not much to say about work other than I’ve gotta keep my nose to the grindstone.

    Hoping to tie some flies tonight. Probably just some killer bugs, maybe some zebra midges. Just something simple. I’m tired but need a mental break.

  • Week of October 21, 2024

    Charlie and me at Home Depot:

    “Daddy, what’s this?”
    “An eye bolt”
    “Daddy look!”

    Charlie made a bus out of clay.

    I worked at the Automattic office in Manhattan on Wednesday.

    It was a beautiful day, so I had breakfast in Union Square before a phone call.

    For lunch I went to Thai Diner. Short rib in pad thai is not something I would have expected but pretty good.

    After work I went to Paradise Lost with some coworkers.

    Then off to Neal Stephenson’s book reading and signing for the launch of Polostan at The Strand.

    We kicked off a slew of Halloween events this weekend. Charlie asked to be a Bucket Truck two months ago and has been consistent, so Amanda created an awesome ConEd bucket truck for Charlie (his arm is the bucket!) and helmets for us.

    Sunday we met up with Meg, Jeremy, and Miles at the library for a haunted house that our friend Colin helped put together. The boys are eating popcorn.

    More festivities later this week!

    I processed the end-of-season habaneros and jalapenos into hot sauce.

    Bottles are on their way, so I’ll bottle this up later this week. Let me know if you want a bottle! The orange habanero has a great bite, but also lots of garlic, onion, and carrot. The green jalapeno has onion and garlic, too. Both have vinegar.

    Charlie and I walked down to the park and went to the playground, then walked to the track and found an abandoned soccer ball, and had a lot of fun kicking it around.

    I went fishing at the Amawalk outlet on Saturday. I caught two wild brown trout on my tenkara rod with a size 14 killer bug that I tied.

    I didn’t get a photo of the ~6″ one because I fumbled with my net and didn’t keep tension on my line, so it hopped off the barbless hook at my feet. Here is the tiny 3.5″ one:

    Still a beauty, very gratifying to catch on a fly I tied.

    It was a nice day and I’m glad I got the chance to get on the water. The flow was very high despite our lack of rain. Lots of water getting let out of the reservoir. The water was almost a foot higher in some spots than last month.

    While walking between spots, I spotted a scrape! The rut is starting.

    I can’t wait for the election to be over. The robo calls, spam texts, and flyers in the mail are so annoying.

    I made a couple things this week. Here are the posts in case you missed them:

    Wading staff
    Prototyping fly rod spoons

    I also tied a few flies, but didn’t take good photos.

    • Two size 14 Grave Digger kebari
    • One black wool sakasa kebari
    • Two bead head black futsu kebari

    This was my first try with dubbing, and it confirmed to me that I definitely need to make some dubbing wax. Getting the dubbing to stick to the thread was kind of tough.

    I like the bead head futsu, I think I’ll tie more.

    I’m off to read more of the new Neal Stephenson book before bed. Good night! 👋 📖

  • Prototyping fly rod spoons

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    I read Tenkara Bum’s post about fly rod spoons, which aren’t really available anymore. If you are lucky you can find a brand from Japan like Rodio, but the shipping is killer and they are hard to find. It is easy to find larger spoons, but for throwing them with a fly rod you want a weight of 0.5g (roughly 1/60oz)or less. That’s tiny!

    I was intrigued, so I decided to make some of my own.

    The closest thing I could think of is the spinners on rooster tails. They are the same basic shape and some are quite small. I spent a couple hours doing research and found a company that sells fishing lure components and ordered a sample of their smallest spinner blade sizes and split rings.

    Dime for scale so you san see how small some of these are.

    Next step: adding a hole on the bottom of each one. I thought I’d use a drill press, but they are so small that holding them in place is kind of a pain. What ended up working the best was a small (1/16″) jewelry metal punch, available in every craft store. I assume they are used for earrings. Works great.

    According to Tenkara Bum, the best fish catcher was the Daiwa Presso Vega in the Nightmare color scheme:

    I did my best to replicate that with the polished brass spoons, glossy black spray paint, and orange glossy enamel paint.

    Next I added some size 0 split rings and size 14 hooks. These split ring pliers were very useful.

    In my most recent fly fishing outing, I threw one of the spoons a few times to see how it works. It wobbles and flutters pretty well when swung across the current. I didn’t catch anything with them on this outing, but I’ll try them again soon. I think they’ll do better in bigger, slower moving water than the shallow, fast water I was fishing today. I expect them to do well for bass and panfish, too.

    Ongoing challenges:

    • Size 0 split rings are still to large. I need to find some 00. Brass ones would look better than stainless steel.
    • The paint comes off when putting the split rings on. Perhaps I need to cover them in UV resin first for an extra layer of protection.

    Why am I doing this?

    • It is fun to make things.
    • Flies are so easy to lose in a tree or an unreachable snag, and the Japanese versions of these are expensive. I want to be able to cast these without worrying about losing them since I can make a batch of them for cheap.

  • Wading staff

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

    Made from a cherry branch from our yard, peeled and roughed with the draw knife (with Charlie’s help!), then refined with a rotary tool. The T-handle is pegged and glued, then lashed on with waxed string. Finished with oil and wax.

    I used it today at Amawalk outlet and am happy with how it turned out. It definitely helps with stability, both in the water and going down steep banks. I used it to free a couple snags successfully. The magnets held flies even when the staff was submerged.

    I love the way cherry ages, so looking forward to a rich color on this in the coming years.

  • Week of October 14, 2024

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

    Later that week we had to pick peppers, tomatoes, and tomatillos in the dark ahead of a frost. For now we set them out on the porch in the sun each day to ripen, and Charlie helps me sort out the ripened ones. We freeze them until I have time to make hot sauce.

    Amanda peeled her luffa plants and plans to make sponges out of them.

    Charlie carved one of the pumpkins we grew!

    We found a leaf bug!

    Friday Charlie was home from daycare with a stomach bug. He bounced back the next day, and we visited a school open house (It is wild that it is already time for that!), played in the backyard and workshop for a couple hours, then went to Miles’s birthday.

    Then Sunday Amanda and I both woke up with the stomach bug. It hit us hard. It felt like a repeat of the time we got food poisoning from some place in NJ (the worst state in the union, by far), but this time we at least had two bathrooms on two floors instead of one tiny apartment. Charlie was fine, had full energy, and very much wanted attention. It was a challenging day.

    Charlie is picking up the very basics of phonics. He has surprised us this week by telling us what letter various words start with after we say them. We recognized a few from ABC books we’ve read, but then threw some curveballs out and he gets 75% of them. Time to break out the phonics book.

    Our street got repaved this week. Looking forward to getting Charlie out there on his bike and scooter. Much better for cruising.

    Last week was one of the toughest weeks at work in the past couple years. So many things changing so quickly with short turnarounds. Many late evenings. I have a feeling there are more of these weeks to come, so I need to plan ahead to stay flexible and take time off to recharge.

    I have a few small projects in the works.

    First is a wading staff so I don’t fall when I slip on rocks in the river. Charlie helped me strip the bark off a piece of cherry with the draw knife. I’m making it a T-handle so it is comfortable to hold on to and so I can use the handle to release snags. I’m thinking of adding some depth marks so I know how deep the water is (inspired by my uncle Kevin) and some holes with magnets for drying flies, inspired by Tenkara Path’s beautiful spools.

    Second is some fly tying wax. I already make my own wood finish wax, so why not fly tying wax? I found an old timer’s recipe, which included rosin. After some research, I learned you can make rosin out of pine resin, so I scraped some pine resin off of a pine tree on a walk.

    My general plan is to dissolve it with acetone, strain it, boil the acetone off, then cook off the natural turpentine and water at a higher temp. Then I’ll mix it with wax and a little grapeseed oil. The rosin is the sticky component, the wax and oil make it pliable. Apparently you can just boil it down and burn off the bark, woodchips, and bugs, but that added carbon will turn it more into a pitch and make the color darker. I’m looking for a nice amber colored rosin, hence the acetone step.

    Third is fly rod spoons. I read Tenkara Bum’s post about fly rod spoons, which aren’t really available anymore. If you are lucky you can find a brand from Japan like Rodio, but the shipping is killer and they are hard to find. It is easy to find larger spoons, but for throwing them with a fly rod you want a weight of 0.5g (roughly 1/60oz)or less. That’s tiny!

    The closest thing I could think of is the spinners on rooster tails. They are the same basic shape and some are quite small. I spent a couple hours doing research and found a company that sells fishing lure components and ordered a sample of their smallest spinner blade sizes and split rings. I think I can drill an extra hole and add a barbless hook, then paint them to my liking. Send me a message if you want a couple to try out.

    Dime for scale so you san see how small some of these are.

  • Tying deer and squirrel hair flies

    I mentioned last week that I brought back some deer and squirrel hair from animals I bagged 16 or 17 years ago. I tried tying some flies with them tonight.

    I tied five streamers with squirrel tail and varies bodies and throats, all on size 12 barbless streamer hooks:

    • Bodies
      • Brass wire, full length of the shank
      • Red thread + silver tinsel rib
    • Throats
      • Partridge
      • Deer hair
      • Hen pheasant soft hackle barbs
      • Grizzly hackle

    Then I tied two deer hair flies, a sedge and an emerger with a tail. Both used some greyish brown yarn for the body instead of hare dubbing. Both were on size 14 barbless hooks.

    Overall good experimentation, even if I only tied seven flies. What I learned:

    • Hair is harder to work with than feathers. Messier, too.
    • Order of tying matters. The throat has to come after the wings or else the wings will pull the throat material up in while you are wrapping. In general, I think the bigger material has to go first.
    • I like the look of ribbing and should do more of it.
    • Wool yarn is a pretty good substitute for dubbing.
    • I like the look of all three feather throats I tied, but tying barbs instead of full feathers worked better and had nicer proportions.
    • Waiting for super glue to dry is annoying, but accelerant smells. I’ll buy some UV cure glue.

    What’s next?

    • I ordered some dubbing so I can learn how to do that.
    • I need some dubbing wax, but I think it might be fun to make my own since I already make spoon finishing wax. I need to go out in the woods and collect some pine resin and cook it down to rosin to blend in. This will make it tacky.
    • More soft hackle and dry hackle flies. Perhaps some of Tom from Teton Tenkara‘s patterns.
    • Some bead head nymphs for the winter. Probably some using pheasant tail barbs.
    • A bunch of color combinations of Ishigaki Kebari and killer bugs in sizes 14 and 16.

  • Recapturing the magic of the early blogging days

    At work today someone asked today about how we recapture the magic of the early days of blogging. I have some ideas.

    First, I don’t think that magic is gone! Sure, a lot of people moved to social platforms. The dopamine hit is just too addicting. Fortunately a lot of cool people are still blogging, and doing interesting things with it. Check out the People and Blogs series, and more importantly the blogs referenced in them, for inspiration. I maintain a feed of the referenced feeds here: https://peopleandblogs.feedland.cloud/

    What else can you do? Reclaim your stuff from social media and do more with your own site. Make it deep. Make it you.That’s where the magic is.

    • Lean into IndieWeb trends, such as /now, /meta, /uses, /ideas https://aboutideasnow.com/
    • Post statuses/short notes on your own domain. I like the IndieBlocks plugin, but Jetpack also has the Social Notes feature.
    • Post what you’d post to GoodReads on a page on your own site. You can use a tool, or just a simple page with bullet points.
    • Post bookmarks and likes to your own site instead of keeping them silo’d in a tool. Even better if it has its own feed.
    • Lower the linkblogging barrier. The faster and easier it is to post a link, the more you’ll do it. I use an Apple Shortcut that posts to a micropub endpoint. Easy peasy.
    • Post a blogroll! Keep it updated!
    • Join a webring!
    • Join a blog carnival!
    • Just blog more. The exciting blogging days were not as polished. A lot of people think blog posts need to be these polished complete pieces, but it takes time and effort. It is more fun when you just type something and hit post. That is where the short notes shine for me.
    • It doesn’t matter if people want your posts to come via email. Email is a pain. Just post and they’ll check your blog.
    • Do regular updates. I like weekly. Every week I’m not sure I have something to post about and every week I get out at least 1000 words and some photos.

    Yeah, I need to take my own advice. That’s why I’m posting this. Next I need to revamp my blogroll and respond to this month’s IndieWeb Carnival prompt.

    Hit post.

  • Week of October 7, 2024

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

    There isn’t much to report from the beginning of the week. Lots of packing for our respective trips and hoping our colds go away.

    Amanda went to London for Kat and Nate’s wedding and Charlie and I went to Ohio to go camping with Grandma and Grandpa. All three of us flew out of JFK around the same time on Thursday, so we were able to go the airport together.

    Charlie is a really good flier. There and back we played with cars and magnatiles, made up stories about the safety instruction card illustrations, and had snacks. Turbulence didn’t bother him at all.

    One of the helpful things for long car rides to and from the airport was the Thomas & Friends Storytime podcast. Charlie loves it. He’ll quietly sit and listen to it with his headphones for a while.

    We went camping at East Harbor State Park, near Marblehead. Charlie settled in to camping pretty quickly. He helped us start a fire, slept well in the camper, dug into breakfast, and rode his bike.

    We spent most of Friday exploring. We went to the lake at East Harbor, Marblehead Lighthouse, and Castalia Fish Hatchery. We all enjoyed finding fossils in the rocks at Marblehead and feeding the rainbow trout at the hatchery.

    Saturday was Trick or Treat at the campground. We made a makeshift explorer costume (backpack, lantern, binoculars) for Charlie and hit the pavement. He ended up with a huge bag full of candy and some spooky tattoos! Some campsites had more decorations than most houses our city. They must have brought a separate trailer just for their decorations. Some people really love halloween. Not for me.

    Saturday night brought a huge thunderstorm that Charlie slept through, but none of the adults did. Sunday was rainy and we headed back to my parents’ house. Charlie, always the helper, pitched in on packing up. He particularly liked pushing the buttons for the retractable awning and slide outs.

    It was a nice trip. I was 100% offline from work, which was much needed after the last couple weeks.

    While at my parents’ house, my Dad helped me get some deer hair from a hide, some squirrel tails, and a pheasant tail. I shot that particular deer and the squirrels about 15 years ago, and the pheasant tail feathers my Dad found while walking in the woods. Now I have some more fly tying ideas! Bookmarks are collected here. I’m excited to use materials the have some extra meaning and history.

    After Charlie and I landed at JFK, we drove back to Peekskill, went grocery shopping, had dinner at Chipotle, and started getting ready for the week. Amanda comes back Wednesday.

  • Little Free Library at Esther Place

    ,

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

    Sure! I love woodworking, books, and hanging out at Esther Place drinking my coffee while Charlie plays with the blocks and chalk, so I was in.

    I didn’t use a set of plans, but I did look at a bunch to get an idea. I sized it to fit the space, and went with roughly 28″ tall x 16″ wide x 15″ deep. This is tall enough for two shelves, with the bottom being tall enough for big children’s books. This was important to me, and I borrowed some of Charlie’s books to make sure they’d fit.

    It was going in a covered nook, so it didn’t need shingles or a wide overhang on the roof.

    I made it out of 3/4″ exterior grade plywood. I started with the box. I made a little corner clamping jig to help me hold the pieces together for screwing. I had to shave down a couple parts with the block plane so the angled roof would sit flat.

    Next was the door. I wanted the middle to have plexiglass, so I built it like a frame. I used L brackets on the back side. Everything fit pretty nicely on the first try. I was pleased.

    I used a little bit of everything to make various cuts. Some were on on the table saw, some bandsaw, others were with a mini circular saw, and the door miters were on the miter saw.

    I gave everything a nice sanding and then handed it off to another volunteer to paint it. Then it came back to me so Charlie and I could caulk the inside and add weather stripping.

    It is sturdy and bolted in place on metal brackets.

    It was on private property so we didn’t have to deal with city permits. I was wary of drilling into someone’s wall without knowing what was on the other side, so the building owner connected me with his maintenance guy to help me hang it. That was a good move because there was a pipe exactly where I wanted to drill, and the wall was thinner than I expected.

    We debuted it on September 22 with a little celebration at Esther Place.

    Since then I’ve checked on it a couple times and it is definitely getting some use and has book turnover!

    It has been registered with Little Free Library, charter . It should be on the official map soon.

  • Week of September 30, 2024

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

    It has been a wild ride this week. I went into the Manhattan office one day, the final day of the deadline, and saw three people at a table near me post their resignations after nervously pacing around, then get out of their chairs, shut their laptops, and grab a beer out of the cooler. Cheers, former coworkers. I wish you the best 🍻

    The folks who stayed now need to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

    On one of our evening walks down by the river, Charlie wanted to load rocks in one of his toy trucks so he could throw them in the water. Why not, little man? 🤷‍♂️

    I got to have dinner with two separate friends this week: Chris after work on Thursday in Manhattan at Casa Carmen, and Jeremy on Friday at Slainte in Peekskill. Being intentional about catching up with friends is something I am proud of.

    I checked on the Little Free Library on Friday. Lots of book turnover from two weeks ago! I’ll go stick some more books in there soon.

    Charlie playing with the hose:

    Look Daddy! I’m making a RAINBOW!

    I took Charlie to the craft store to pick up a couple things we needed. He picked up some muffin papers and really wanted them, insisting on carrying them around. When I asked what he wanted to do with them, he said, “I want to share cupcakes with my friends.” So later that day Amanda and Charlie made cupcakes from scratch and he took them to school. He was so excited and so proud of them. It was very cute to see. I’m glad we encourage and go along with his ideas when we can.

    Charlie and I went with one of his friends and her dad to the fall festival by the waterfront.

    I coined a new term for bounce houses: Chaos Castles.

    One clear difference between little boys and little girls: Every little girl in Charlie’s friend group will sit and patiently paint something, then walk away clean. Every little boy ends up covered in paint after about five minutes.

    I replaced two window screens and the screen door this week, all three long overdue. Also washed the ACs and put them away.

    I used a speed stitcher for the first time this week to stitch some webbing into a double floatant holder. The gel kind goes on the bottom, the power goes on top.

    I cut webbing to length using a crappy chisel that I heated with a blowtorch, then I cut the circle for the gel floatant to slide through with a heated up section of copper pipe. Then I stitched a loop at the top for a clip and two pieces of elastic to secure the bottles.

    The speed stitcher worked great and I know I’ll get some use out of it.

    It doesn’t matter that summer is over. We use the grill year-round.

    I tied some more flies over the weekend. Some things I tried:

    • Black, white, and brown woolly buggers in size 12, 14, and 16. Some with tungsten beads, some with brass beads, and some with glass beads.
    • Some killer buggers with glass beads (pink and red) in size 16. I wanted some smaller ones, all previous ones were 12s.

    What’s next? Probably some more flies with stiff hackle. Different kinds of futsu kebari, elk hair caddis, stimulator, or blue winged olive.

    The habaneros and jalapenos are finally starting to turn red! I don’t have time to ferment them to make sauce right now, so I’m picking and freezing them until I do have time in a couple weeks.

  • Week of September 23, 2024

    We moved five house projects forward this week (three big, two tiny):

    1. We had Lance Dorfi install a radon mitigation system in the basement. We have put it off for four years, but it ended up being less expensive than we thought and took only three hours.
    2. Amanda painted a dresser we’ve had in the basement for two years and I helped her put new handles on (going from one handle per drawer to two). And Amanda cleared space and put it in our closet.
    3. We got a quote for replacing the siding on our house.
    4. I removed two of the four ACs. Other two this week.
    5. Charlie and I replaced the smoke detector in the attic.

    The WordPress world is in uproar this week. It has made work interesting. The WP people reading this already know, and the non-WP people reading this probably don’t care, so I won’t bore you with the details other than to state which side I’m on.

    I’m on Matt’s side, and not because I work at Automattic. If that were the case, I’d just say nothing. I’m on Matt’s side because, after reviewing the arguments from both sides, I believe WP Engine (on orders of Silver Lake) to be acting in bad faith over the last couple years and refusing multiple reasonable offers to make it right.

    I think Matt took it public in the wrong place at the wrong time without making all of the details public, leaving a lot of people at WCUS with a bad impression that he is now fighting against. The C&D should have come first the week before. But that horse is out of the barn and all it can do is run fast enough to win the race and make sure it clears the fences and ditches.

    Based on what I know about the facts at this time, I firmly believe Matt to be in the right on this.

    We went to a baby shower at a bowling alley on Saturday. The expectant parents wanted something non-standard that everyone could attend, and that certainly fit the bill. The daycare contingent hung out on two lanes and barely contained the chaos of three year olds trying to pick up and roll bowling balls 1/4 of their body weight. The parents finished the frames that the kids didn’t want to do. One dad hurt his back (not me). All-in-all, a good time. Bowling alleys are underrated (though most are in need of a good clean and a facelift.)

    Charlie thought the keyboards that allow you to put in the bowlers controlled the ball after you threw it, so after every throw (light roll) he’d run back and press the buttons. It was cute.

    Charlie had picture day at daycare this week! He looked very handsome in his sweater and pants. Unfortunately he was not thrilled and didn’t smile. 🤷‍♂️

    I tied a lot of flies this week.

    Glass Bead Takayama Sakasa Kebari
    Killer bugs and Grey & Orange kebari
    Tied eight more flies tonight. All Futsū kebari. …

    I also got out and casted them! Sunday morning I went to Muscoot River/Amawalk Outlet (PDF).

    I’m floored that this amazing wild trout stream is only 30 minutes away and I haven’t gone until today (or known about it until a couple weeks ago.) The river is fed from Amawalk Reservoir (there are a few of these going between the extensive reservoir system here) and is cold year-round. I measured the stream at 54F this morning, perfect temp for trout.

    Unfortunately neither I nor the couple people I ran into caught anything or saw trout rising. I could see a bunch holding at the bottoms of the pools I drifted, but they didn’t react to flies drifting right in front of them. Some days are just like that.

    Despite being skunked and getting rained on, I had a great morning. I got to try my tenkara rod for the first time and got the hang of casting it after about an hour. I have a lot to learn, but I can more-or-less make the fly go where I want. The tenkara rod is great for the Muscoot, which has a lot of tree cover. There were many spots where I don’t think I could have casted my western reel fly rod, but I was able to adjust the length on my tenkara rod and cast just fine.

    I also got to explore and take notes for future visits. There are multiple pools and nice runs within 10 minutes upstream and downstream of the parking area. Lots of brown trout, some crawdads, and lots of birds. I suspect it gets crowded on nice weekends, so I’ll try either going during the week or hiking further from the parking area next time.

    The killer bugs I tied sink to the bottom nicely. The red double bead kebari sink to about mid-level. The other wet kebari stay a couple inches from the surface, and the dry Ishigaki float (as expected).

    I learned that I probably need to tie some smaller flies. I did a lot of 10 and 12 (easy sizes to learn on), but I definitely need more 14 and 16 given the size of the browns around here. And maybe some bead heads or more with wire, because the fish are holding at the bottom of deep holes. Maybe some zebra midges and brassie midges.

    I only lost two flies, one in a tree and one under a rock in a pool, both Killer Bugs, which are the easiest to tie. I came back with eight more flies than I went with because I found ten (!) in only three trees at the popular pools. The hanging tippet caught my eye first, so I bent the branches down with my net and salvaged the flies. There were a couple more that I couldn’t reach. Here is what I salvaged:

    I’m keeping five of them. The other five are too rusted or disintegrated to use. I used to do the same thing when I went golfing–I had fun searching for lost golf balls in the rough or woods and went home with a dozen each time.

    I needed something to hold my wet flies so they could dry before I put them back in my fly case, so I grabbed a wine cork, put it on a string, and hung it from my fishing pack. It worked great!

    Unfortunately the super glue bottle leaked while I was glueing it up and I almost glued four of my fingers together. I didn’t notice until I met some resistance moving my fingers, which was almost too late. I ran to the nearest sink and ran my hand under water right away, which seemed to mess up the glue enough that most of it didn’t dry clear and I could flake it off. That was enough to get my fingers apart and get my wedding ring off without ripping my skin. I spent the next two days picking off dried glue from my hand.

    That stuff is no joke.

    Amanda and Charlie made an apple pie on this rainy, cold Sunday. I made a Fallback to go with it. Cheers to Autumn.

  • Killer bugs and Grey & Orange kebari

    I tied 17 flies tonight. I’m getting faster!

    • 13 killer bugs
      • 6 with oyster yarn and cream thread, size 12 nymph hook
      • 6 with salmon yarn and wine thread, size 12 nymph hook
      • 1 with grey yarn and orange thread, size 12 nymph hook

    In-progress shots:

    • 4 Grey & Orange kebari
      • 2 with stiff badger hackle, similar to an Oze kebari, size 12 dry fly hook
      • 2 with soft tan hen hackle, sakasa style, size 12 dry fly hook

    These were fun to play around with and see what I could make.

    I also had fun getting my SLR out and using it again. Hopefully these photos are a little better.

    I need to get better about not crowding the hook eyes. Some of these I might have a hard time threading the tippet through.

    Charlie wanted to help. He is pretty good at rotating the vise while I hold the thread and let it wrap.

    You can see my makeshift backdrop of brown paper. It worked okay, but I’ll find something else next time.

    I’m planning on taking my tenkara rod out on a river this weekend, so I have my small fly box filled with flies I’ve tied myself:

    By my tally I’ve tied 53 so far.

  • More Glass Bead Kebari

    A follow up to yesterday’s post on tying glass bead kebari:

    Glass Bead Takayama Sakasa Kebari

    I tied eight more of the same pattern (pheasant hackle, red thread, peacock herl) tonight and am starting to get the hang of it. I also stepped down from a size 10 nymph hook to a size 12 dry fly hook, which has a slightly longer shank than the nymph version, allowing a bit more room to fit the beads, hackle, herl, and tail.

    I also experimented with mashing it up with another classic pattern, the partridge & orange: I used partridge hackle, orange thread, and Shetland Spindrift wool yarn in moss in place of the peacock herl. I kind of like it and will probably tie a couple more.

    I’d ideally like to tie ten of each pattern I like to get the hang of it. The first three are not that great, four is acceptable, then 5-10 are usually keepers. That will roughly take me two nights if I’m learning a new pattern (I’m slow and still learning).

    I took a closer look at the pheasant feathers tonight and feathers from this section seemed to fit the size 12 hook better, leading to better, more balanced flies.

    The photos are still tricky… I don’t have enough light at night to get the most out of my SLR without setting up big lights, which I don’t have time for, and the photos from my phone are overprocessed and lack detail. I guess I need to be patient and take photos the next day.

    Back to stiff hackle flies next. Probably the Shetland Futsū:

    Simple Yarn Tenkara Flies: The Shetland Futsū

  • Glass Bead Takayama Sakasa Kebari

    Trying out tying some Glass Bead Takayama Sakasa Kebari by Jason Klass. I have a lot to learn, but am making progress, which is all I can ask for.

    Tonight I got a little better at matching my material to my hook size and used two new ones (glass beads and peacock herl) for the first time.

    These have glass beads, red thread, pheasant hackle and peacock herl.

    Originally I picked pheasant feathers too large for a number 12 hook, then upped the hook size to 10 and picked slightly smaller feathers. I only had enough time to tie three, but the third came out better than the first two.

    Here is the first:

    And the third:

    In-progress shots:

  • Week of September 16, 2024

    Today is the Autumn Equinox. I couldn’t help noticing that the sunset and the light it cast on the Croton Reservoir was brilliant. I’m looking forward to autumn, cooler days, chilly nights, and fewer insects.

    It was warm enough to feel like the end of summer this week. Warm enough to play with the hose, warm enough to get ice cream. We also had an incredible moon, and I was able to get a slightly closer shot through the binoculars mounted at the end of the pier.

    Our accidental pumpkins (one of the luffa seeds we planted from a pack ended up being a pumpkin) ripened, so we put them on the front porch, then added some mums. (Watering mums in a bucket is the proper way, we recently learned!)

    Speaking of luffas, ours are growing quite nicely.

    I tied more flies this week. I put a post up about experimenting with different kinds of wire around the house for adding bulk and weight. A couple days later I picked up some lead wire, which is much better to work with. I also got some proper fly tying thread, and, unsurprisingly, it too is easier to work with than sewing thread.

    Misadventures with wire on the fly

    Next I tied up a couple more Shetland Killers in different colors, then a couple Keeper Kebaris. I love the look of the pheasant hackle.

    Next I want to try tying some with peacock herl.

    I made myself a bobbin threader and a bodkin this week!

    For the bobbin threader: The kind folks at the local guitar shop gave me some broken guitar strings, and I was able to cut a few lengths of the high E string to use. I put it in a handle I quickly carved out of an oak cutoff.

    For the bodkin I used a larger triangular needle from the set I bought for sewing boat skins. (I never use the straight ones because the curved ones are easier on the fingertips.) I carved an oval-shaped handle from a mahogany cutoff and set the needle in.

    I like making my own tools, and both of these were immediately useful in my next tying session.

    Saturday was a tough day. Charlie was cranky for the first half of the day and would not be placated. After an unsuccessful nap I took him to the playground to play with some of his friends, and it was like a switch flipped and he was suddenly fine. Unfortunately it switched back again later because of the no-nap.

    Saturday night I went to install the Little Free Library I built ahead of the unveiling party Sunday, and in the 5 minutes between putting my flashers on and carrying the library 50ft away, a cop showed up and wrote me a ticket. He was a complete dick about it and completely unwilling to listen to me calmly explain what I was doing and why.

    Unfortunately Peekskill uses a third party to collect tickets, so the incentives are aligned in favor of zero leeway, and it is unlikely I’ll get them to budge. Calling City Hall won’t help, either. I’m just going to pay it and save myself a lot of headache.

    Longtime readers know that I generally view police with contempt, and this certainly doesn’t help.

    Sunday Peekskill Walks held a ribbon cutting party for the Little Free Library I built. (I’ll put up a post about that this week!)

    Charlie got to help pull the drop cloth off of it and be one of the first few people to put books in. Lots of people brought books and ended up filling it. I’m excited to have it out in the community. I hope it gets some use!

    Sunday afternoon Charlie and I had a Daddy & Charlie shopping trip to Yonkers. We were there most of the afternoon and went to the Lego store, Gap, Old Navy, LL Bean, the Container Store, and Stew Leonard’s. We picked out some new pants, a picture day outfit, and a winter coat for Charlie. We both had a great time!

    That reminds me, Charlie and I went to the bookstore and picked out a couple of Charlie’s favorite books to donate to the Little Free Library, and we ended up spending a while sitting and reading together there. I love moments like this.

  • Misadventures with wire on the fly

    As I wrote about in my last weekly update, I’m learning how to tie flies. Tonight I wanted to try tying some nymphs in order to practice my whip finishing and work with wire, which I hadn’t tried yet.

    I decided to try tying The Shetland Killer.

    The Shetland Killer

    Unfortunately I didn’t have the right size wire, so I went rummaging through every drawer in the house to see what I could possibly use. Here is what I found:

    • Some very fine wire for fly tying that came with a cheap kit I bought
    • Florist wire
    • Old Radioshack solder
    • Bead stringing wire, nylon coated

    Okay, maybe I can work with something here. I gave each one a try and see how it does.

    I tried the ultra fine wire from Colorado Angler Supply (seems like this isn’t a real manufacturer, just a repackager/reseller with multiple websites under different names with the same cheap stuff, not recommended) first. I had to wrap it a lot to get any kind of bulk, and even then the nymph came out pretty skinny. Not terrible, but not worth the effort of all that wrapping.

    Second I tried the solder. This was the thickest and easier to work with, but I think it came out too fat. At .050, the solder is twice the thickness of the wire fly tiers typically use for these nymphs.

    Next, the florist wire. This stuff was a great thickness, but way too rigid and difficult to work with. I had to wrap it with pliers and use wire cutters. If I tried to tie a bunch of these it would take 3x as long as it should.

    Last I tried the bead stringing wire, which was probably the worst of the bunch overall. It is covered in nylon so it is slick and wouldn’t stick to the hook, and it is really hard to cut. I had to wrap a lot of thread around it to bind it down and keep it in place, all while struggling to keep it from unwrapping. Definitely not using that again.

    I wanted to tie 5 overall tonight, so I tied a second one with the florist wire, the best middle ground option I have tonight of size and pliability. I think those two came out the best.

    In-progress shot with the florist wire:

    The five I tied tonight using the four different kinds of wire and Shetland Spindrift 423 Burnt Ochre yarn.

    From L to R: Ultra thin wire, .050 solder, florist wire, florist wire, bead stringing wire.

    I’m happy to report that I’m getting better with the whip finisher. It is starting to click for me.

    The main lesson I learned tonight: They make specialized wire for fly tying for a reason. The size and pliability matter. I definitely want to keep doing this and tie some more nymphs in different colors, so I ordered some proper lead wire in .020, .030, and .040 sizes.

    I’m also starting to see the limitations of sewing thread. It frays easily and doesn’t lay very smoothly. So I ordered some proper fly tying thread, too. Thankfully these materials are fairly inexpensive, and a single spool can tie hundreds of flies.

    On these photos: Instead of my phone, I might need to get out my SLR again. I think the 50mm prime lens would do a nice job with showing the detail on these flies. More to come.

    The wire and thread should be here in a couple days, so I’ll try again soon!

  • Week of September 9, 2024

    ,

    I’ve deleted three different openings, so I’m just going to dive right in.

    Speaking of “diving in,” I used that phrase earlier today and Charlie was confused, and then even more confused after I tried to explain. Idioms are challenging to learn!

    Reading update:

    • I finished The Monkey Wrench Gang by Edward Abbey and Tenkara – the book by Daniel Galhardo this week. I’ll certainly read more Abbey in the near future, and I’m working my way through two other books on tenkara-style fishing. On audio I finished the fourth book in the Expeditionary Force series, Black Ops.
    • I started the new Bobiverse book, Not Till We Are Lost, on audio this week. I’m finding it pretty jumpy and it isn’t holding my attention as well as the first four books. On Kindle I’m a couple chapters in to Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
    • Next up in physical format: The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis, sent to me by Fernando.

    I started learning how to tie fly fishing flies this week. I clamped some forceps to my desk, used sewing thread, and picked up some rooster hackle on eBay. The first couple flies were doable enough that I decided to buy some basic tools and materials to give it a real go.

    After my vise, hackle pliers, bobbin, partridge feathers, and more hooks arrived, I gave it another shot, tying a variation on the first style (Ishigaki kebari), then some North Country Spiders.

    I have a lot to learn! This is not something I can do very well when I’m tired. I need to spend more time figuring out the whip finisher and building up muscle memory with that. Keeping notes as I go here.

    Next I want to tie some killer bugs and killer kebaris.

    I also need to get out on a stream soon! I did practice casting a little bit this afternoon on a pond, but I’m eager to take my new tenkara rod out on a real stream.

    More evenings after dinner down by the waterfront with Charlie. Playground, walking, throwing rocks in the water, etc. Caught this nice sunset:

    Our friends Chris and Meg came up from Manhattan on Saturday to hang out. We:

    • Walked around downtown Peekskill for a bit
    • Hit Benny’s Brown Bag for lunch
    • Went on a hike in Blue Mountain Reservation. We took a trail that I’ve not been on, despite living so close and getting out there a couple times a week. It was a nice change of pace.
    • We got the pizza oven out and made pizza!

    Miscellany

    I noticed this hand-drawn shelf map at Bruised Apple Books this week. Every indie bookstore needs one of these. Quite charming.

    A little footprint. These fade as quickly as he grows, and I’m glad to glimpse them occasionally.

    Tonight Amanda was stretching on her yoga mat, and explaining to Charlie how to do some basic stretches. Then for the next five minutes he made up different stretches and taught them to us, which made for much amusement. His imagination is great.

    We played in the sandbox a couple times this week. I’m glad we put one in this year, it was worth the effort.

    Our tomatillo plants are still producing a ton! I have away a huge quart this week and made a quart of salsa verde with another.

    It got hot again this week. Summer isn’t over.

  • Week of September 2, 2024

    A lot of things this week didn’t go according to plan. That’s okay, we adapted and still had a good week.

    Monday was the Labor Day holiday and we played a lot outside, trying to soak in that last bit of summer. After a good afternoon of playing outside at home, we got ice cream and went to a new playground we hadn’t been to before in Verplanck. Charlie really savored his ice cream and enjoyed the cool roller slide they had.

    A coworker a friend was supposed to visit from the UK and I had planned to work in the NYC office one day, have him up for dinner, hanging out, and rowing before he left, but he caught covid and had to stay home. Bummer.

    The weather was great this week, so we tried to prioritize outside time as much as possible in the evenings. We took some walks, went to the playground, and played on the porch and in the yard.

    On a walk in the woods and through the park, Charlie was very interested in our shadows. “Look Daddy! Our shadows are holding hands!” ♥️

    He also pointed out this interesting shadow and asked me why it looked like that. The light had 8 individual bulbs instead of one large one, and no diffuser, so each made shadows, slightly offset. Pretty cool.

    Amanda processed and dried a bunch of our herbs this week. We now have lots of dried oregano, thyme, and chives to cook with this winter. She also made a lovely lavender wreath for the living room.

    We’re enjoying the cool weather. Charlie has been extra snuggly.

    Saturday morning Amanda and Charlie hung out with some friends, so I got some workshop time. I did some cleaning and organizing, made a french cleat holder for the bench dogs, finally put the old gouge I cleaned up into the new handle I made, and started shaving down a piece of oak for a hammer head with the draw knife.

    For the gouge handle, I drilled a hole that was a little too small, then knocked it in on the bench. I prefer a good friction fit to using epoxy. I cut the collar out of a piece of copper pipe and held it in place by punching two small indents in it. I know poplar is a but soft for a tool handle, but it is what I hand and I wanted to try the process on something I had laying around. It is easy enough to replace if I need to.

    I wrote last week that I was considering trying out tenkara fishing. I’ve been reading about it all week and decided to give it a shot. I bought a rod that should be here in a few days and I’ve been scouting potential locations nearby.

    New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation keeps records on trout streams, including stocking info. They have a handy map, which will give me a great place to start. Here is what is in easy driving distance:

    Hoping to get out and scout some of these soon! I’ll probably go out to a local pond to figure out the basic casting technique first.

    I’m also interested in smaller woodland streams and brooks that tenkara seems particularly suited for. There is one about a 15 minute walk into the woods at the end of our block I want to try, and many more in the state and county parks around here. Those will take some more leg work to scout.

    I pulled out my jumbled mess of flies from the last 20 years and spent two evenings sorting through them and figuring out what they are. Lots of flipping through books and internet searches later, I’m somewhat confident in the categorization. Now I need to get a home case for these instead of trying to keep them in the small ones we carry on the river.

    I thought it might also be fun to get Charlie interested in fishing, so we went and got a rod that is just his size, one of those push button kids rods. We also put together a small tackle box for him.

    I was a bit ambitious and included lures, but I quickly realized we aren’t quite there yet. Maybe next year. I tried to teach him how to cast in the front yard before going fishing in the local park pond, but he isn’t quite coordinated enough. Even though he got a couple good casts in, it ultimately ended with him getting frustrated and being completely turned off to the idea of going fishing. I felt horrible. I took natural interest and excitement and completely fumbled it. What I should have done is just taken him to the park and let him drop a hook with some corn in the water and hook a couple bluegill to keep his interest.

    A couple hours later I was able to get there in a roundabout way: Going for a walk in the park, walking by the pond, and wondering aloud if there are any fish in there, and working up to the reveal that I had Charlie’s rod and net in the car. It worked.

    Instead of casting and reeling back in, we used a bobber, hook, and corn. I helped him cast it out, then he watched the bobber and reeled it in when the bobber disappeared (or it took too long to disappear). Charlie caught three fish, two bluegill and a pumpkinseed, and was thrilled.

    Lesson learned: You have to play it cool, start small, and capitalize on interest immediately.

    I’m off to make dinner, then hopefully go for a bike ride and read some books with Charlie 👋

  • Week of August 26, 2024

    We traveled to north Georgia Monday through Friday to visit my aunt and uncle, grandfather, and cousins (all on my Mom’s side). My parents met us there. We enjoyed catching up, meeting my cousin’s son Maddox for the first time, and introducing Charlie to them for the first time.

    Some highlights:

    • Maddox and Charlie playing together on the swingset
    • Visiting the Edge of the World Trail and rapids on Amicalola Creek.
    • My cousin’s husband taking the two boys on rides in an excavator and loader. They even got to control the boom and bucket. It made Charlie’s week.
    • Charlie getting to feed a horse.
    • Stromboli night, a longstanding tradition at Higgins family get-togethers.
      • When I was young I was thrilled at being able to pick what I wanted in mine and having the first letter of my name marked on top with dough.
    • Learning about tenkara-style fishing from my uncle, which includes a rod very similar to a Western fly rod, but without a reel or floating line and mostly collapsable. The line is fixed length. Typically uses barbless hooks. I am very intrigued. I picked up a couple books to read on it and started researching starter rods.
    • My uncle also makes his own nets out of branches. I love the look of them.
    • There are armadillos in north Georgia!
    • Driving through Atlanta is nostalgic for Amanda and me. We had an apartment downtown for a summer the years before we got married. It was our first time living together and a big early taste of independence.
    • We visited the Morrisons on the way there on Monday. It was great to see them! Charlie did not want to be in the photo.
    • I picked and tasted some wild muscadine grapes. Very thick skins.
    • Sitting on the porch, listening to the Barred owls, and watching a storm roll in.
    • Having some great sausages from Frankfurt in
    • Watching my grandfather, who can’t hear very well or move quickly, light up when Charlie or Maddox interacted with him.
    • Checking out a couple styles of camp chairs my uncle made and getting measurements so I can make my own.
    • Catching glimpses of Amanda and my parents each (at different times) reading to the two boys together.
    • Charlie did great on the plane! He also liked the Plane Train at ATL. We sat in the front so he could see the tunnel.
    • Learning some of the Cherokee treasure lore in the region. Check out Cry of the Eagle by Forest Wade.

    After we got back home:

    Friday night we grilled some burgers and I whipped up a quick aioli for them. Flying in and out of White Plains instead of LaGuardia or JFK made the difference of being able to cook at home instead of getting takeout.

    Our nasturtiums look great!

    My hot peppers are finally producing after a very slow start.

    Saturday was mostly a “stay at home and put our life back together” day. I mowed the grass, Amanda and Charlie made mini blueberry muffins together, we did laundry and picked up around the house, then we were able to spend some extra time in the afternoon making a meal from scratch that we don’t typically have time for: Chicken and rice with homemade ginger scallion sauce, and scallion pancakes on the side. (Yeah, we had a lot of scallions to use 🙂 )

    Charlie also helped me waterproof the Little Free Library by caulking the inside edges and adding weather stripping inside the door. I showed him how the caulk gun works and we applied it together.

    Sunday Charlie and I went out rowing early with Jon Richer. Charlie did great out in Peekskill Bay, even as the wind picked up and it got choppy. He is also starting to figure out how to help me navigate: I point out where we want to go, and tells me when I’m not going the right way and points toward the place I pointed out. He got a thrill out of going under a train trestle.

    Turns out Jon is interested in tenkara too, so we’ll probably get out on some streams in the spring.

    Midday we went to a birthday party at Fishkill Farms and picked apples.

    I’m mentioning mostly highlights here, but it is worth mentioning that it was kind of a tough weekend. For large parts of both Saturday and Sunday Charlie was inconsolable. He must be going through some developmental changes right now and is having a hard time. It is age appropriate and makes sense, but that knowledge doesn’t make it any easier. We are trying our best to be patient and supportive, but it is very grating. We all ended the weekend emotionally exhausted.

    Here is to an easier next week! 🤞

  • Week of August 19, 2024

    This week had greater than normal variance. Higher highs and a lower low than usual.

    The highs: I had some really great moments with Charlie this week. The weather was beautiful.

    We went for a lot of walks and bike rides by the river in the evenings, and I’m regularly astounded by his memory and ability to notice things. I treasure those walks.

    Charlie and I were on our own for a couple days while Amanda was in Miami for work. It went better than expected (certainly better than the trip last month.) Every single thing seemed smoother this time around, from morning and bedtime routines, to daycare drop off, to Charlie listening to his body and communicating when he had to potty. I’m really proud of him.

    Two highlights:

    1. We tried a Texas-style bbq shack we pass all the time. I ordered pulled chicken for Charlie, but he surprised me by preferring brisket and eating most of the brisket I ordered (and I ordered fatty brisket, not lean!). I’m excited to have another person in the family who appreciates brisket.
    2. We had a fire in the chiminea on the porch on Friday night. He helped me collect sticks to burn, he was fascinated by instead of scared of the big rat snake we encountered, he enjoyed watching the fire, we talked about fire safety and he was quite diligent, we looked at the stars and talked about the Big Dipper, we set up his small tent on the porch, we snuggled and ate ice cream as the flames turned into embers. A great evening.

    The low:

    A friend from high school took his own life this week.

    I only have four friends from high school I keep in touch with, and he was one of them. It hit me harder than I expected, and even though it probably wouldn’t have changed the outcome, I feel guilty for not talking with him recently. The last time we chatted was over a year ago. I thought about him two weeks ago and meant to text him, but I didn’t. Man, that feels awful.

    He had a big impact on my life. He was a few years ahead of me in high school and patiently taught me the basics of PHP and MySQL, which I now use daily in my work with WordPress at Automattic.

    Reflecting a lot on him over the last couple days, I realized that I identified with him more than anyone else I went to high school with because of our similarities across different areas of my life:

    • We grew up in the same school system and even though we were a few years apart, we followed the same class track. We both worked after school in room 320 on the tech team managing the school system’s website, intranet, and email server. We were in a Sunday night book seminar together as well.
    • Every time we talked we were exploring similar ideas, reading similar books, and following similar blogs. He was a reader and commenter on this blog and a couple other blogs I contributed to.
      • I appreciated his intellectual curiosity.
    • He had very similar political leanings and an interest in economics, which was a big part of my life from 2008-2014. Only 2 people from high school shared this interest, and I recall that he introduced me to some of the early blogs I read in this space.
    • We shared an interest in the outdoors, and good hikes and national park visits were a frequent topic in our email exchanges.
    • We both worked in the tech industry.

    I have lots of friends that I share one or two of these things with, but he was the only one who comes to mind who I shared this much similarity with in areas of my life I normally think of as separate.

    Despite this, we hadn’t seen each other in person for a decade. We mostly kept in touch via email or blog comments and occasional video chats, which seemed totally normal for us.

    I wish I would have talked with him more frequently. I wish I would have shared a meal with him at Christmastime each year. I wish I would have known he was struggling. I wish I would have told him these things and told him how much he matters. Now I’ll never get to. It makes me incredibly sad.

    Life is about navigating living with these wildly different emotions (joy, pride, fulfillment, sadness, regret, grief) in the same day and continuing to fulfill your obligations while they happen. We often think about these things in isolation, but they happen in the same short period of time and same physical location. You experience them together and life doesn’t stop. My son still needs me to be a father, get us home safely, and make us both lunch even when I’ve just read a heartwrenching email in the parking lot at Trader Joe’s. And even though that little boy mostly needs things from me, he gives so much to me, too. So much joy, pride, and love. Even comfort—he noticed I was sad and came over to give me a hug and sit in my lap.

    Life is so much more complex than I thought when I was younger. That is what this week was about… life, death, joy, pain, pride, regret, and the deep complexity of life.