Category: things I have broken

Winter 2020

I don’t need to tell my contemporaries that this year has been rough. There will be plenty of expert analysis in the world for many years to come but on a personal level, and almost one year into the pandemic, my extended family has not had to experience the worst of the suffering. We continue to have our physical health, financial stability, and (usually) good humor, together, as we plow ahead.

I think this collective experience is leaving a visible scar on our generation because we all know people who have suffered loss and our usual solace is hamstrung by isolation. While we count ourselves lucky, our inability to comfort each other in person, and in so many of the usual ways a community brings solace, contributes to our suffering and emotional difficulties. We are not special in this regard but, in this past week, with news of more than one effective vaccine on the event horizon, I suppose I feel once again like sharing some observations I have made in the past 6+ weeks. On some level, these feel like an ointment for the scar.

Some events have come to pass.

La Grande turned 18 – four days too late to vote in the election. 😦

More miles have been put on the car in the past month than in the previous 10 months I think.
A few days later she passed her driving test and got her license.

This first ever ‘solo’ Thanksgiving was a very hearty meal – for the next 4 days.

On a nice afternoon the WHOLE family put up Christmas lights – another first.

With a semblance of normalcy we invited AK to help us get our tree.

Some nature has done it’s thing.

An interesting cluster of mushrooms.
(Fun Fact: If they were less clumped it would be called a ‘troop’ of mushrooms.)

There doesn’t seem to be a special name for a patch of lichen but TheWeeOne said it should be called ‘a ruffle’.

The web in my wood shop becomes quite conspicuous when I spend enough time sanding down to 400 grit (or better).

Some glimpses of the everyday.

Some damned fine holiday cookies.

Old School Communication methods make a resurgence.

Like a joke on a fortune cookie. “You will learn French this year…in bed.”

Hedgehog Kitchen timer is the new school bell.

Lap dogs have an abundance of laps.

Tupperware (or Rubbermaid in this case) is still in the line of fire.
#thingsIhaveBroken

Good food and togetherness continue to garner our undivided attention.

Woodworking & Tooling kick

In the past couple weeks I have gotten into a bit of a woodworking kick. Nothing stupendous, but I have enjoyed watching Rex Kreuger’s Woodworking For Humans series on YouTube and this was partly the impetus crossed with my successes and failures around making my desktop. Explanations aside; I have set-to-right a couple of things.

Firstly, I quickly fixed the broken handle on a hammer I acquired from my maternal grandfather. It wasn’t used a bunch, and I think it is a pretty cheap tool generally speaking, but I was happy to re-set the existing handle, albeit a little shorter than it was originally. I didn’t try to polish the finish on this one because I didn’t think it would work – the metal looks drop-cast (die-cast?) and I don’t really think a wire brush treatment would change anything. Further, the age and origin of this hammer is more important to me than it’s use and the patina of it reminds me of that.

I have had a ‘failed’ cherry picture frame, given to me by a professional because it wasn’t good enough for his needs, kicking around in my shop for probably 15 years. didn’t ever have the desire or fine-skill necessary to attempt to finish the job. As it turns out the thing was so square and solid that each corner can make a pretty good little try-square. The only missing feature now is that the tongue should be thinner than the stock – to allow squaring up on edges. They do work well for outside and inside ‘trying’.

Try squares (or try planes) appear to be associated with the origin of the idiom: Tried and True

After those simple tasks (couple cuts and some shellac) I took on making a marking guage. A valuable tool that both Rex and other YouTubers present as a critical component of a woodworking shop. I was convinced and gave it a shot. I also started with a piece of cherry from the same frame.

It should work well enough but there are at least two problems with my first attempt…three actually.

  1. The Stem is a bit undersized for the hole – I got too far down the road shaving it with my rasp. This makes things a little sloppy. I can fix it by making a new stem someday, if and when it becomes a problem.
  2. The Thumb Pin is a little hard to secure against the stem. I should be able to make this better also with an improved stem which I’d make sure is a bit bigger and has a proper flat-spot on one side (forgot that bit before I assembled it). When I do that – my thumb pin may be a bit short to secure it tightly. Hard to say really, I’ll have to use it a while to decide.
  3. I made the Thumb Pin black, by torching it. Doesn’t hurt anything but I think blackened cherry is uglier than plain cherry.

One last note – crossing over my hobbies – the spike on this guage is made from an old bicycle spoke.

Shop Window

Take a look. Sorta close. It’s like those pictures in the magazines you used to see in the waiting room at the dentist. Something is different.

If you see the difference then allow me to explain. The picture on the left is from Aug 21st, while the picture on the right is from September 23rd.

I sorta want to leave it alone until 2021 because, at this rate, I’ll just have to replace whatever goes back in on Oct/Nov/Dec 22nd or so.

Howell Mountain and Mooney Meadows 2020

A couple years ago, or 5 months ago in Covid time, La Grande told me, in a fit of exasperated and weary anti-acceptance,

I just want to do something. I just want to go somewhere.

The conversation that followed resulted in a planned week-long trip to Wyoming, with BopOp, to meet Cousin Louie and hike to Mooney Meadows. We would continue the near-annual pilgrimage1 and continue working on extracting the airplane wreckage left near Howell Mountain in the Shoshone National Forest. Planning, exercise, beard-growing, equipment, and some hiking practice followed in imbalanced amounts. 

1 (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 was 'smoked out')

For LaGrande (and to some extent myself) this was going to be a dip into the deep-end of the pool. In our first (only) practice outing we learned a bit about elevation, snow & ice, and sun.

started with smiles and marmots – ended in sun-burn-blisters.

The day to leave came soon enough and, after driving straight through to Cody on a Saturday, we began our hike about 9:30 on Sunday morning. There was an air of excited anticipation and, admittedly, trepidation.

We were right to be anxious, the day grew hot and long, our feet grew tired, and we over-estimated just how far we could go in one day. ~30 min before sundown we made an abrupt stop roughly 1/4 mile from the top with JUST enough time to setup a ramshackle (and sloping) camp on the hillside in the trees.

This may have been the least comfortable nights ‘sleep’ in – maybe forever.

Our abused feet were needed, on a down-slope log, to keep us from squirting out of the tent; nearly the same as sleeping standing up. Around midnight I jammed my walking stick under my rear, like a wee ledge, so I could take weight off of my feet. If anyone ever claimed I had a stick up my butt, on this night at least, they would have been right. Every human on the slope that night couldn’t wait for light to come so we could keep moving.

When the light did come, without much water, we broke camp hastily and finished our ascent. The view was amazing allowing us to revel in our accomplishment, admire the sights, and discuss briefly what was ahead.

That is when some trouble started. Spoiler alert: it was our only real, or unexpected, trouble for the rest of the trip. First, a large ~40lb boulder, loosed above me, arrested it’s brief descent on my left thigh. That night I was convinced the pounding would, for sure, be a problem for the remainder of the week. Lasting injury never materialized and, in retrospect, the event looked a lot worse than it was. The same can probably be said for the second event a few short hours after the boulder when, tired and thirsty, LaGrande and I were completing the last few moments of our glacial descent. I lost my crampon-footing about 60 feet from the bottom and only finally arrested my descent with my feet, on the rocks, at the bottom.

The wreck reminded me of a 15mph bicycle accident, or perhaps jumping off a low roof. The ceremony lasted only a few seconds and I ended face-down in an icy cold creek with forty pounds of our ‘possibles’ holding me down. We took that lesson seriously and used our tools (crampons and ice-axes and lead line) more deliberately going forward.

For the next few days we acclimatized to the rigors and sights; remarkably cold water, rough sleep, tiring efforts, fast-beating hearts, glorious views, pretty flowers, and questionably-tasting (yet oddly satisfying) foodstuffs. Even made time for a few selfies.

Top Left – the heaviest piece was ‘owned’ by ‘Little Cousin’.

Over two full days, and using the pulley system devised by BopOp for this 2020 trip, we raised nearly all of the scrap to the top of the glacier – there is only a fraction remaining in the meadow. Because we took an extra day coming in we exercised our option (planned flex day) to extend our stay one day. This decision gave us a bit of ‘time’ to consider other fun activities and plan our extraction. The plan included departing, up, and over the glacier with full packs; slow, tied in, deliberate, and fully fed. Once at the top we would stash the remaining raised pieces near the crest and then walk to Paradise Valley for our final night in the hills. This would leave only an easy 7 miles out the following day.

The top pic shows the ‘scale’ of the climb – follow the lines to the Little Cousin.

This penultimate act took many hours and we all notched our mettle by ascending the glacier with full packs and then hefting the remaining wreckage up the cliffs, by hook or by crook, to their temporary resting place in the small trees at the top.

We finished at the meadow by rolling some pesky rocks and then had a bite and a brief fight with the wind, and then eventually moved down to Paradise Valley.

Along the way, LaGrande finally got her wish; to see a bear at a distance. The rest of us only saw the verifiable bear sign on a tree.

Perhaps a mile from the end of the trail LaGrande laid to rest another bucket-list item for the trip – taking two shots with Cousin Louie’s 45 Colt Long. I took these stills from a slow-mo video – they tell the story just as well using less bandwidth.

“the password is LOUD“

We got off the trail about 4PM, feeling as good as ever, had an early dinner with Louie, made for the showers at the motel, had a (second) late dinner in Downtown Cody, hobbled (literally) around the closed up tourist area, and melted into a good nights sleep.

This may have been the most comfortable nights ‘sleep’ in – maybe forever.

The next day included a grocery-breakfast, some tourist-ing – paying a small homage to Jeremiah Johnson, and then a fair bit of driving.

We capped the drive with an entertaining search for a hotel in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho between 10-11PM. Needless to say we stayed in Spokane around midnight, had another deep recovery sleep, and then included some practice driving a stick-shift (#bucketlist).

We finally arrived home, safe and sound, by about 3PM on Sunday – 8 days in all.

My Tastebuds

What do you get when
A) You choose a low-carb / high-fat diet,
B) You are not clever/skilled with food preparation,
C) You tend towards the pragmatic end of the spectrum (i.e., you are cheap),
D) You do not have much time (i.e., you do not think about food in advance)

  • 1/2 medium avocado
  • 3 Tbsp Mustard
  • 1/2 cup Pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
  • 1 can Sardines (in Olive oil)

ROLF

….annnnnnd then enough hot sauce and pepper added to never…taste…again.