hmmm not straight and little errors

I need to find out which bottom panel is incorrect.  The center station is either too wide on one, or too narrow on the other.  will measure the center frame to see where the error is.  I also cut the side seat stringers an inch too short.  It should not matter much.

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Pipe Smoking Sailors Explorers

I ran into a picture somewhere of a traditional kayaker with a pipe in his mouth.  Then I ran into other pictures of pipe_smoking mariners.  Apparently, once upon a time, pipe-smoking was a normal diversion for men on the water.  Voyageurs, the canoeists who transported furs from the Canadian interior to Lake Superior stopped periodically for their smoke break.  What all these people had in common was exposure to the elements, the cold and wet and tobacco smoke generated by a pipe helped them endure.

This photo looks like a still from a movie set and features the pipe prominently.

These two fishermen are mending nets on land.  They are getting a bit of a break from the harsh sea but the pipes come out all the same.

And of course, theres Popeye, beloved cartoon sailor with a pipe he mostly used to suck spinach out of a can.  

Also found this photo of explorers in Unalaska ca. 1907. When in a cold place, smoke a pipe.

Note that the only guy smiling is the guy front right with the pipe.  Pipe smokers also got to sit down.  No pipe, you have to stand and look grim.

Soon as I find the picture of smoking kayakers, I will post it.

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Eating Mesquite

The mesquite is a small leguminous tree that grows throughout the American Southwest.  It blooms early in the year and then, late in the year, it grows long beans that eventually drop to the ground.  Unlike the beans we typically eat, these beans stay in their pod which does not dry out and release the beans but stays whole and keeps the beans locked inside.

 Mesquite beans on the ground under the mesquite tree.  In no time at all, you can collect enough for a meal. I did collect a bunch but made no attempt to eat them until I got home.

 The collection site right behind our breakfast table.  The picture was taken in January and all the beans were on the ground.

 Back home, I tossed a bunch of the beans in a high power blender.

 

The ground up beans looked like this.  I sifted them through a colander.

The sifted meal looked like this.  The meal is a combination of the ground up hull and the insides of the beans.

 The shell of the bean itself resists grinding and gets tossed.

Animals on the other hand eat the whole thing, hull and bean, possibly doing some chewing and run it through their digestive tract and deposit the hulls on the ground.
The next step is to do something with the meal.  You can get recipes online or you can just improvise.  The mesquite meal is sweet with just a hint of sour.  You can make a rue with it and add it to soup or parch it in a pan and use it as a thickener for stews as you would any flour.  Unlike flower, it does have a distinctive taste, however which you may or may not like, mostly it is a little sour and sweet and you may need to experiment until you find where to put it into your food regimen.

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Deck Carlins and shop maintenance

The temperature in the garage is now below 40 degrees, so I am refraining from doing any serious amount of gluing and epoxying.  I did discover that I can assemble the structures temporarily using hot melt glue.  This has allowed be to physically test the rowing positions, and the angle of the deck carlin (to which the combing gets attached).  This is a good find and will glue the blocking in place when we get a warmer day.  Other off season projects are:

• complete purge of the basement workshop
• clean and reorganize the garage building space
• sharpen hand tools and saws
• throw out all broken tools and replace with working ones.  
• Sift through the paints, varnishes, and toss or replace as needed
• discard worn out brushes

It seems as if I have acquired many, many handtools over the past 50 years.  Some belonged to my grandfather, my father-inlaw, and his father.  Some of these are unique,  others not so much and of questionable value.

11-25-14
Some surprise weather today! 60 degrees, so deck carlins are in as well a oarlock locations, and stern deck framing.  Have started on the cockpit hatches as well.  Working on the corner pieces that need 13" radius.  and 8" radius,  also need to add plywood gussets.

Put a chisel through my finger cutting this block down to size to bolt the stem fitting through by freehanding the 3/4" chisel and NOT wearing gloves.  Bad idea.  Could have been more serious.  

December 19 update

Was tired of looking at the remaining plywood at the back of the garage and figured I would at least lay out the decking in the rough to see what it would look like as well as gauge whether or not I will need one more sheet of plywood.  This all now depends on whether or not I use 1/4" okoume for the combings or use some other wood.  Honestly, the cost would be about the same so will probably go with ash as it shapes well, bends well, and looks fantasic under varnish.  It is prone to rot, so keeping up the finish is essential.  

It now looks like a boat!  

Other project this month is to finish the rudder and tiller assembly as well as mount the gudgeons and pintles.  

Tiller.  Roughed to shape.

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Yurt Design Canvas Shrinkage

Canvas shrinks.  I knew that. So when I designed the roof pattern for the yurt, I should have allowed for shrinkage but didnt.  Oh well, nothing that cant be fixed with a little more sewing.
Not only didnt I allow for shrinkage in the roof, I also didnt realize that the canvas shrinks unevenly, more along the length of the material than across it.  Something to be conscious of next time.
Now that I think of it,  I doubt that I could plan for shrinkage in any sort of exact way since the shrinkage is non-isotropic.  I suppose I could just make a roof cover uniformly oversize, then when it shrinks, regardless of whether it does it evenly or not, it would still be large enough to do the job.
For now, not having tried to it yet, I am leaning toward pre-shrinking the canvas.  Unroll however much canvas I need, hose it down, dry it in the sun, then cut it up and sew it into whatever shape I need. Everything I havent tried yet sounds like a good idea.  Whether it actually is, doing it will tell.
Meanwhile, some before and after shrunken roof cover pictures.

Before: the yurt roof cover on its maiden voyage in Kings Canyon National Park. I trimmed the fabric so there would be about 8 inches of overhang.  Sewing the seam at the edge reduced that by about an inch.  Other than the wrinkles which I hadnt dealt with yet, not bad.

After: Overhang of the roof fabric has been reduced to about 4 inches at the max and two inches at the minimum.  The wall fabric likewise has shrunk some top to bottom and side to side. Time to make some corrections. Canvas work is not an exact science.

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More Uses for a Two ton Crane

My neighbor at the shop came up with yet another novel way to use the two ton overhead crane.

Ben floating over the bottom of his boat with his dad in the background steering the crane to move him into position for applying the next batch of resin.

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Scarfed panel

Finally!  One completed Bottom panel.  Its twin is in the background setting up.  I actually used packing tape to smooth out the fiberglass tape.  Things have sped up immensely since not doing the 8:1 scarfs and using 3" tape instead.  Apart from forgetting to clean two brushes (was having a contest as to how long I could get a cheapo chip brush to go).  The new yogurt containers for Greek yogurt work great for mixing small batches of epoxy.  they clean right out after the epoxy sets up.  

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