Still paying the bill
All of that is now this.
I won’t try to emulate the Late Great Remus, but thats my woodpile report for now. Three more loads like that last and I will be full up for the winter. I still had half a row left from last year, but this one is looking to be a doozy with an earlier start. I have another shed, half this size, I may end up filling if our cold snap carries out much further. Added insurance you could say.
And my kayaks are feeling quite neglected this week. Will next week too since I have to make a run back to my old stomping grounds of yore to help family out. I may drag Betty
along in the off chance I can get in some paddle time on my ol neighborhood river. Nothing wild about it, some dull class one stuff and a lot of open slow moving areas, but its cleaned up a ton since I was a kid and any seat time is a welcome addition right now. Most rivers hereabouts are dragging hulls low and I am betting the same applies up there, so, Betty is the only choice if I get that shot. She rides higher and has that thick-skinned whitewater hull to take some abuse.
But its back to the grind(er) and burning metal tomorrow. A week behind as usual but steadily gaining to the end of that (current) list. (It always hits in loads that need done yesterday it seems) There is ALWAYS more after that, even if its just some strange shuffle of tool bags and a different hat to wear for a day. “The price of being good” is what the bossman said to me once.
The beginning of fall
Quiet swishing from my PFD as the paddle passes left and right, biting the water, pushing towards any random destination today. Rain pattering all around me, washing sweat from my face leaving a salty taste on the edge of my lips. The rain helps now, knocking the heat down. We round a bend and there on the shore, a Blue Heron scoping the water. A doe and her two yearlings watching us, twitching ears, but no signs of distress. One of the yearlings steps towards the shore line, but mama twitches her tail as warning and the little one stops. Still no signs of fear, just caution.
The maples aren’t turning yet, but the poplar are and I see a few oak are starting to shift shades of green. In another month, if we have a hard frost, all of them will be bare and the landscape will take on that somber, almost bleak look.
Paddling season isn’t over; it never really quits, I just change apparel needed. Out come the wetsuits, drytop and fleecewear; in the box go the quickdry shirts and shorts. Booties instead of barefeet or sandals, pogies on the paddle, and out we go again. Paddling in the cold is sometimes my favorite time as the quiet and solitude are far more intense. Lake time isn’t drowned out by powerboat noise, or the thump, thump, thump, of someone blasting thier stereo.
Like today, rainy, and not just a drizzle, and the boats are staying close to their slips, or on their trailers. Here we are with water dripping off our noses, watching life that has no clue, nor care, about Trumps or Bidens or dollar-bills or even utility bills. The little one just wants mama to explain what kind of ugly duck that is out on the water.
It puts a different perspective on ‘the real world’. One almost doesn’t want to go back: just keep paddling, the river knows the way.
Wudooyadoo?!?!
When the world is topseyturvey and normality is asleep in the trunk of an old lead sled careening out of control without brakes?
Build a flippin paddle. Thats my answer anyways. Weather is just as crazy as the rest of the world right now with the remnants of a hurricane breaking over us, so paddling is out (its not the rain, its the electricity in the air that stops me)
Here are the pics.
Same length as my older paddle, same loom but I decided to try a shoulderless design this round.
Not finished, still a lot of shaping to do and sanding, sanding, sanding. I plan on glassing the lower section of the blade, more as protection than looks, from beating anti-social rocks into submission. The loom will be a linseed oil and beeswax mix I found works great and doesn’t tear waterlogged hands to ribbons.
Alright, thats that for the weekend.
A question to all the readers, please respond in comments. Do you feel something in your soul right now? A kind of ‘impatiently waiting’ feeling?
No need to elaborate in comments (unless ya really wanna) a simple thumbs up or down will suffice.
Somedays, the bear gets you
This ‘bear’ has been creeping up on me for awhile. Not real certain how it came to be, or if there is even a ‘fix’. But the problem is very obvious now.
The gunwales in Serena have warped and the entire boat now has a noticable twist from bow to stern. Seen on deck the bow leans to port where the stern deck leans to starboard. At the hull, the keel, which when I first skinned her was dead straight, now has an obvious ‘S’ shape and the cutwaters are leaning at odds to each other. Last time I had her on water was for rolling practice and she was quite damp inside after the fact. Being tied down to the rack probably helped keep things from being worse than they are (and a possible clue to a fix, maybe,,,)
She can be paddled, she will roll, but she is no longer the “Expedition class ” kayak. Sure, you could do it, and after a 1/2 mile, the correcting strokes would be as absent minded as my ex-wife, but you would feel it the next day. And getting into a ‘good’ boat would have you flustered in seconds until your hind-brain adapted again.
I’m tempted to try this and see if it fixes the issue. Fill her with water and let it soak in for a period of days/week. Drain it out and clamp in the rafters of an out building over the winter. Let the frame ‘relax’ by being wet then ‘train it’ with the clamping. Over the winter because the humidity slowly shifts from “scuba req’d” summer months to “dry out a mummy” winter chills.
That will likely be my course of action as I have time and money tied up in her . If it doesn’t work, I’ll strip the frame, clean it up and put in on the market as a conversation piece. I’ve seen yak frames in th Rafters of seafood places a time or two, and if she isn’t a good boat afloat, she can be a great wallflower for others to enjoy seeing.
A strange thing
Went out today with Serena and Shorty (nickname of the new to me Pirouette). Scouted 5 places to put in and not one “inspired” me. The water at Laurel Lake was down 4′ from when I was last there and wave action was abrupt and short lived. A river put in below the dam was out for similar reasons, low water. Went further on where Laurel meets the Cumberland and it was so low and mucky,,
Just was not feeling it today. Strange,
May be I just need a paddling partner.
Gah! I’m impossible
I get frustrated with myself at times. Seriously, FRUSTRATED.
Why? ‘Cus I am perpetually driven in the quest to KNOW THINGS. Not anything in particular, but EVERYTHING I come into contact with.
I have just spent DAYS and an unknown amount of data researching building, floating paddling all sorts of DIY kayaks, canoes and rowers. From fuselage type builds, woodstrip, skin on frame, to hardcore Fiberglass construction, I have been digging in? Here is one of the places I have spent a LOT of time at. Check out this video of one of his builds. (link, can’t seem to embed it)
WHY? you may ask. (and I occasionally frequently ask myself the same damned thing)
It’s not like I have any intention of actually building one of these boats, I have one that I am quite comfortable with and does what I want it to do. I really have no intention of serious whitewater life, though later on I may do the coastal thing on a vacation or two, but that’s two different animals. I know that this boat can handle class II water, likely even class III, and I have zero intention of anything higher than 2.2 .
Ah, that’s the side of me that gets others frustrated (my dad). It’s an inherent part of my personality. I need to know as much as I can about whatever I am getting into, because I like prefer being self-sufficient in all of my endeavors. It may be trivial information at best, but the fact that “trivial” information frequently becomes “useful” information isn’t a bad thing. I gotta learn, and learn, and learn. I may not build a boat, but by god the techniques will come in handy for other things. And knowing that its possible opens up other possibilities along the way.
And who knows: knowing how to make a kayak from wood strips and skins made a couple of indigenous people into a survivor group in climates that kill normal people with a quickness. That’s a skill set that can’t be bad to have.
Dio's Workshop 