The forecast looked nice so six of us headed out to take advantage of the three-day holiday weekend. Section 10 of the Ouachita Trail was the target and, since this is an odd section with camping restrictions, a different approach was called for. Continue reading “OT2020: Section 10, MLK backpacking weekend”
Construction of a steady rest
For the vase I recently completed, I needed to use a steady rest to support the end of the vase and keep it from vibrating. As you can see in the photo below, at this stage the vase is connected to the lathe by the 2″ diameter neck and I needed to finish turning the inside of this piece. So I made arrangements to go to a friends house to use his steady rest.
Continue reading “Construction of a steady rest”The Little Vase That Was
It’s been a quiet six years on this blog! We’re quite alive although life, as it’s prone to do, got in the way of posting about our adventures. This post isn’t intended to catch the reader up on happenings but rather to test out our continued ability to post.
It’s finished! This was my first time turning an open segmented piece in two parts and then glueing them together. This made it easier to access the inside but it complicated the overall process and made it more like making two pieces simultaneously.
The finished piece consists of maple and walnut, 12 segments/row, approximately 15 inches tall by 8 inches wide (37cm x 21cm).
Cossatot First Timers Trip 2014
The Arkansas Canoe Club ran this years First Timers trip on the Cossatot River and here is a link to a gallery of photos I took… https://ourpasttents.com/galleries/2014-cossatot-first-timers-trip
This is a placeholder post… hopefully I’ll write more soon.
2013: Truth in Numbers
We’re a little late to this 2013 paddle log thread but here are the digits for we three Sig’s. I think I counted everything correctly as the year went on.
2013 saw each of us paddling for over 32 days this year on 15-18 different streams streams for 113-170 miles. We continued to try out lots of boats this year which means some of us paddled 10 different boats. Some were open boats and I’ve since made the switch to paddling canoes. This, of course, upped all of our swim counts compared to the year before though Mandy still has the fewest (duh!).
Last year also saw us camping out 23-38 nights last year and hiking 40-108 miles. Hiking has taken a backseat to paddling but Mandy got her numbers up by spending three weeks rambling around the western US.
Even our dog Hayduke managed to hike 31 miles and camp out 11 nights which is more than many folks. He really is a luck dog.
All in all, it was another great year and a lot of that credit goes to the community of paddlers that makeup the Arkansas Canoe Club … those folks have taken us in to safely show us the ropes. SYOTR!
How boats are made
Ever wonder how modern canoes and kayaks are made? We did, so we went in search of a few videos and figured we’d share them here.
It seems like most kayaks are made by rotomolding though one or two companies blowmold them… most canoes are made of Royalex and are made by vacuum forming but this material won’t be manufactured after spring 2014… SOME canoes (mainly the more modern/short whitewater canoes like those made by Blackfly and Esquif), are made by rotomolding… and Mohawk Canoes is working on a blowmolding process for their new whitewater canoe.
How to make a kayak – rotomolding (Liquidlogic)
How to make a kayak – rotomolding (Jackson)
How to make a kayak – blowmolding (Prijon)
Laser Vision (Post-Op) (updated)
Post-Op
The drive home was fine except I was super tense and trying not to cry. I wasn’t upset at anything but the whole experience was very stressful. I’m not sure if I needed more Valium or needed to wait longer for it to kick in. The multiple attempts on my left eye weren’t confidence inspiring even though I knew we were losing suction before anything critical was taking place. Continue reading “Laser Vision (Post-Op) (updated)”
Laser Vision (The Operation)
Op
Typical doctors office, we have a 9:30a appointment and don’t go back for almost an hour. Once in the back, they check to see which is my dominate eye (right) and give me a Valium. They proceed to put me in a hair net and place booties over my shoes. My forehead gets a sticker saying which type of surgery I’m having and in which eyes (custom, bladeless, both eyes). The surgeon then stops by to introduce himself and have one last look at my eyes in the microscope. He then walks me through the procedure and lets me know what he’ll be asking me to do. After that, it’s game time.
We get escorted to the surgical suite. Aly has a seat outside the window with a monitor that lets her watch what’s going on. I’m brought into the darkened suite and laid down on the reclined chair. Several times I’m asked about my name and birthdate and they make sure it matches up with the name tag I’m wearing on my head. I suppose this is to make sure they have the proper settings loaded into the computers based on the tests they’ve previously run on me. Continue reading “Laser Vision (The Operation)”
Laser Vision (Pre-Op)
Pre-Op
I have been considering LASIK surgery for a number of years now, keeping an eye on my prescription to see if it was changing, asking various doctors if they thought I was a candidate and talking to friends that have had the procedure. Cost was always an obstacle, as was the fact that I only have two eyeballs. They tend to not heal themselves if you lose your vision.
I’ve worn glasses since forever and for the most part don’t mind them. They got in the way of playing catcher in Little League baseball but so did contacts due to the sand the catchers mask tends to pick up. My vision was such that I couldn’t get prescription Oakleys or other wraparound sunglasses for wearing while riding my bike and I made due with a pair of “old guy” prescription inserts for the Bolle sunglasses I wore. Continue reading “Laser Vision (Pre-Op)”
We’ve moved! Websites, that is.
Hi! Aly and I put a lot of work into our family website/blog over the holiday season, and we made a big push to not only finish a ton of old blog posts but to jump ship from Blogger too! We made this new website from scratch to contain our blog and our photo gallery. Now that it’s all in one place, and mostly running on WordPress, it should be easier to maintain and update in a timely manner.