Snow, Rain, Sun, Rain, Saw Dust and Dial Indicators

We should have known on Friday afternoon when we saw the snowplow on the west side of Kenosha Pass that the weather was going to get interesting.

If you have been following the Colorado weather and fire scene this summer, you probably know how hot and dry it has been. Most areas of Colorado are setting low rain marks and Denver had is most consecutive days about 90 degrees record broken recently.

When we left town on Friday is had been raining most of the day. For that we were very thankful.

As we headed up through Conifer and Bailey the rain was picking up and the sky was charcoal ash dark. We topped Kenosha Pass and could see that South Park was stormy. As we descended the snow on the road shoulder told us it was cool out too, but the plow truck was a sure sign.

On the way to Fairplay, the rain kept playing with us and the sun even came out for a couple of minutes, but by the time we hung a left on to Highway 9 for Hartsel it was dark and raining again. There wasn't much traffic but when we got closer to the Hartsel dogleg more and more vehicles had their 4-ways flashing.

Then, as we crested a shallow hill this was presented for our enjoyment.

A snow covered road and a "yard sale" type accident. Hitting the brakes told the story of how it happened.

It was raining again by the time we pulled out of Hartsel. There were some bikers sitting under the canopy of a local gas station wondering what type of weekend adventure this was going to turn out to be.

For us it was one of those rare couple of days where it rained all the time, sometimes real light, but constantly.

It even tried to fool us on Sunday morning by letting the sun peak out long enough to throw the ball a few time for Dusty, but within 30 minutes it was clouded over and thundering again.

Enough for the weather report.

We were able to get a few things off the to do list because of the rain. Marlys uncovered the glulams in the garage, sanded and covered them in poly. The garage has been her project this summer and after the trim out around the glulams it will be done (waiting on another rainy day).

Most of Saturday morning was spent taking a dial indicator to the tablesaw. After putting a bit of wood through it, a check-up would be in order. In checking the blade the side-to-side run out was .07", which although not much got me wondering if it was the blade or the arbor. So in checking the arbor the side run out was <.005". It appears to be a warped/bent blade. Probably from moving/twisting material while sawing, which is a bad thing to do. A new blade is needed to correct, since I don't know how to re-flatten or true it up. A good couple of hours was spent fooling around with the TS, including building an enclosure for the back (this is a contractor type saw). Even with the dust collector, enclosing the bottom is next to cut down on the saw dust.

BTW, if you have been doing any trim work this is a great gizmo, a Kobalt Portable Compressed CO2 Regulator from Lowe's. It really beats hauling around the air compressor to run a trim or brad nailer. It uses the same air bottles as paintball guns, which gives a wide selection of capacities and ease in getting refills. It is usually setting in the shop ready to go for projects, like pinning spreaders on chairs that have loosened up.

But what I worked on this weekend was a air filtering system for the shop.

During the winter when the front doors are closed a lot of saw dust can get in the air from sanders, saws, jointers, etc. Beyond the impact when applying a finish it probably is not good for the lungs and even though I am good on safety glass use, I seriously lacking when it comes to grabbing a mask.

In searching the usual places looking for a used system and noticing that Home Depot has their small ones on sale, last week, I did a quick Google to see if anyone had made one. Wouldn't you know there many folks have built systems for their places. One that caught my eye used window fans, of which two now in the shop looking for a place to be stored when not being used.

The setup was pretty simple and allowed for movement to the high saw dust making spots in the shop. After grabbing a couple of filters from inventory (I had a few in the furnace room), this is the final product. Very straightforward and they do seem to pull air nicely.
One will probably end up moving over the work bench, as that is where the sanding happens.

The more the $25 radial arm saw is used the more I realize what an overlooked piece of gear this is. Virtually all of the pieces for these were cut using it.

That edge on view of a slab, in the second picture, sitting on the TS out feed table is the last remaining piece from the pallet of curly redwood ordered off eBay back in 2006. it is going to be a wall shelf for the area next to the fireplace (where the other redwood was used) to display Derek's "linen man" wire sculpture. Since this will be on the great room side it will have a finished (vs. wild) edge (see Jekyll and Hyde post).

Next project weekend will be focused on building a lumber rack. I grabbed the picture of one that someone was selling on Craigslist that will be the model, stay tuned.

Heavy Lifting

While Marlys finished staining the decks, Derek and I spent Friday putting in a couple of retaining walls.

For one of them we used locally available rock and when I say locally available I mean everywhere around our little compound (more on this definition later).

The work though became how to move them from where they are to where we want them.

To a great extent we relied on the ATV and our POS trailer. Some on the rocks we moved had to weight in excess of 200#. After about a dozen loads we had the incline beside the garage completely covered. One more task to remove from the to do list. We also started on the wall outside of the downstairs back bedroom, but that won't finish up for another week as we ran out of bricks.

To follow-up Friday's herculean activities, on Saturday we installed 500' of snow fence up top. Remember the rocks I mentioned above, try driving t-post through them, ain't happening. After 5 hours of driving posts and hanging fence we were shot. By Sunday morning we could barely move our arms. There is still about 2500' of snow fence to install. Hopefully, we will get it in before the snow flies.

I also had a few hours to fool around in the barn, so I built this dust hood for the radial arm saw. It works pretty good. I think I am going to make a matching station at the same height for the miter saw, so long pieces can span both work surfaces.

Derek has also started work on a totem pole sculpture. The first task was to joint and glue up some pieces of 5x5 cedar scrap that when glued together will give him a workable size. Jointing this size piece on a 6" jointer made for some real sweat work.

Derek brought everything that could be washed home. I mentioned that when I was here alone I used ~60 gallons of water over the weekend, last weekend Marlys and I used 120 gallons and this weekend 500 gallons.

Part of this is due to Marlys being a serial flusher, where as, I am from the "If its brown flush it down. If its yellow let it mellow." school. There is no winning though in this discussion.

Until the spirit moves me next time.

Craigslist Treasures & The Deck is done.

Marlys was in Minnesota at the lake with her friends this weekend, which left me with time to finish the deck and work (play) with some items I picked up off of Criagslist this week.

I only had the cap rails to complete on the deck so it went pretty quickly, I also got out the router and bull nosed all of the end edges. The deck turned out pretty nice, but that mostly goes to the design, which is pretty basic.

After reading a book I picked up on furniture design, I have come to the conclusion that I need much work in this area. Luckily there are a lot of plans and pictures that I can use to build items.

Speaking of building, last Monday morning at 6:40 I checked Craigslist to see what may have been posted over the weekend. I noticed an ad for clamps that had been placed just a few minutes before. The ad had a picture of a table filled with bar clamps and a price of $1-$3 per clamp.

I may not have a great deal of woodworking experience, but I have become a believer in the adage that you can never have enough clamps.

The ad said to call after 5:30PM. I figured though that someone had placed these ads just a few minutes ago so I would give it a try. Lucky me, someone answered and I said I would take all of the clamps. She asked if there was anything else. I went back to CL and I noticed a series of ads with everything normally in a well equipped wood shop, so I asked the reason for sale and she said they were moving to Mexico and didn't want to store the equipment.

Quickly looking through the ad's I said I would take the jointer and the radial arm saw too.

Marlys, Derek and I picked everything up on Monday evening.

Derek was looking at a dismantled downdraft kiln that was beside the workshop. His art classes must be paying off because it just looked like a pile of bricks, chimney liner and some type of tile tome. It could have been a BBQ for all I knew.

There ended up being 48 clamps in all and the price was $50. So I spent Saturday building a rack to hold these along with those already in the inventory.

I had to come up in with my own design because as mentioned above I am challenged in that area.

I had a nice clamp rack plan, but I think it is in Minnesota at the aforementioned lake in the hands of "Bill the Consultant".

He also got me started on looking for a shop liquidations as a place to pick up good gear. Most of his shop came from a cabinet maker, who if I recall right was retiring or upgrading. Any way I have been on the look out for one of these sales for a long time, kinda like the legend of the Corvette, in the snow bank with the smell.

This shop also had a couple year old Unisaw with a complete station and cabinets for sale at agreat price, but I have a hard time getting everything out of my current saw, so this would be way beyond my skill level.

After finishing the deck I unloaded the truck and setup the gear.

The radial arm saw is a vintage 1960's Dewalt 925. It still had the original trunk finish green paint. I paid $25 for it and the table it sat on. Ray said the motor was starting to bog and it would probably need to be re-wound.

I am not sure about that, because I made allot of saw dust with it this weekend and am amazed at how well it works.

This RAS is so old that it doesn't even have a trigger switch on the handle, but a key that is mounted on the arm to turn it on.

The other piece is a 6" Grizzly Jointer. My current jointer is an old off brand that needs a tune-up badly, so picking up a 3 year old jointer for $70 seemed like a good buy. Ya, 70 bucks. Ray said to watch the blades as they were new. I made some saw dust with this on Saturday too. Actually a lot of saw dust.

The jointer is really one of the keystones of good woodworking in that if you don't start with flat, square material it is just about impossible to end up with a good item.

So I spent the weekend throwing the ball for Dusty, having a few Modelo's and playing with the new gear. And Marlys thought I was going to have a lonely weekend with the high point being beans and franks for dinner.

Flying Bugs, Water and Deck Progress

After the fiasco with emptying the cistern a few weeks ago. I asked Rick's to put in a water usage meter so we could check what our consumption actually is.

Yes, I understand that this doesn't help in watching the cistern, but it does give us get a feel for water flow and the amount going into the house.

This is a pretty standard water meter made by Master Meter. I apologize for the poor picture quality, but again it was the phone camera... in the dark ... the basement... at floor level.

Our usage from Friday evening until Sunday at noon, which included heavy washer usage, was 190 gallons.

The last time I measured the recovery rate on our well, which was 2005, we recovered at 265 gallons a day. This is the key measure, not the pumping rate, as that is more a factor of the pump itself, case in point our well report says 5 gallons a minute, which it does for 15 minutes at a time.

I have our Pump Saver set to pump the well dry (to pump suspension level) every 180 minutes, unless the cistern is full.

On to the deck.

The deck is almost complete. Yahoo!

Then I get to start Marlys next project ,which is the cabinetry for the laundry room, which I believe is going to include a wine cooler.

I, of course, was told I could look on Craig's List for a used refrigerator to put in the barn for beer. I guess I know our priorities.

I am still short four pieces of Trex for the deck itself and the top rails. Chuck at Sonny's called and said they were in last week, so I should complete this project on Saturday. Then Marlys' work begins in sealing and finishing to match the front.

I don't know if you remember from a post in late 2006, but our electricians had left one of their impact drivers behind after the rough-in (they claimed it during the finish) and I had mentioned to them how much I liked using it. They got me one, which I use virtually every weekend on different projects. Securing the decking was made for this tool.

This is not some high(er) voltage cordless tool, but a 12 volt, 3 AMH Panasonic impact driver. It has driven in every fastner on this deck from the 8" framelocks, 2" joist hangers and the hundreds of 2.5" composite decking screws.

It hasn't missed a beat and the battery has only been switched out maybe 6 times. I know this since the charger is in the barn and I need to walk down the hill to swap them out.

I noticed that Fine Woodworking or Homebuilding has an article this month on why it is you need to have an impact driver. Haven't read it but I can tell you I am sold on their use.

OK, now to the next subject, entomology.

This summer I have noticed a new (to me) flying insect around the house. Its identification has be the subject of an ongoing email thread with the CSU Extension Service.

This insect is about an 1.5" long and only seems to fly a few inches to a foot off the ground, alone or in small groups of ~6. The insect has a wide reddish orange band around its adomen. Initially I didn't have a picture of it so it was thought to be some species of a robber fly. Robber flies are predator critters that tend to go after spiders and other insects.

I was finally able to capture one of these critters, when it wandered in to the insecticide kill zone around the house and went into convulsions and died. Guess that isn't so much a capture, as a pick it up.

I made an exceptional (CSI quality) post mortem picture on the edge of the pickup box.

Whitney has now identified this as a:
Response (Whitney Cranshaw) - 07/21/2008 03:04 PM This looks like a hunting wasp in the genus Ammophila. They are solitary wasps (i.e., do not make a colony) and nest in the soil. The females hunt caterpillars that they paralyze, drag back to the nest, and provide for their young to feed on.

I mentioned about a month ago the number of woolly bear caterpillar's around this year, which may explain their presence (and the tiger moths).

Tune in for next week's episode - The Treasures Found on Craig's List, or I too tripped on to a wood shop liquidation sale (so there Bill).

Got a few things done...and the cistern bandit.

Derek and I were able to get as much done as materials allowed on the rear deck.

If only I had ordered 2 more 16' pieces of TREX and if only I had ordered the rail tops.


We have decided against the pergola I had been thinking of because it seemed to over power the deck and did not balance well with the front deck which is viewable when stand in the driveway, so the deck is now a match to the front.


Marlys cut all 100+ balusters and she is now quite proficient at running the miter saw.


Couple that with the garage painting, now including the floor, and she is getting more capable of doing her own "honey do's".


The garage floor is a nice red tile color and quite glossy, which when stepped on with wet feet can make for an exciting ride.


She also spent a day sanding down our old kitchen table and chairs, to re-finish and put back in to service in the place we are moving to in Parker the end of the month (from the Downtown apartment).


She has a full card this coming weekend in applying poly to the garage glulams and table/chairs.


So, it was pretty busy next time.


Oh ya, the cistern bandit. When we got back up to PR last Monday and I turned on the water, I heard the down stairs toilet running, so I went into the BR and it was...right up to the point it was full, then it stopped.


What gives?


That was my likely suspect.


I went through the house and checked everything now that I had water in system. This was one of my errors from previous in that I would not see any leaks without water in the system.


Everything seemed to be OK, so I gave up and went outside to work on the deck. But something was amiss there.


The back fill around one of the deck footings had settled, as if water had ponded around it.

There was a wet trail from the footing back under the pile of TREX laying on the deck joists.

The trail lead right up to the rear faucet on the house and the ground below it had a water hole dug into it, from it runnin.

So this seems to be the leak. I didn't see it the week before because of the pile of TREX blocking the view of the faucet. I must have rubbed against it when working on the deck and opened it up. So I guess in that regard I have found the colpret and it is me.

Deck progress and the mystery of the missing water

The rear deck progress continued last weekend with Derek coming over from Gunnison to help the old man.

We were able to get the deck framed out and Trex hauled from the driveway to the rear.



We had to adjust the joist spacing as you can see in two spots to accommodate the power service entry and of course one of the anchor bolts I put in a couple of weeks ago.



You are probably wondering about the the height of the posts. I am going to put a border pergola along the outside edge of the deck. I left 9' above the deck level, at this point, but I suspect I will cut down later. Of course three of the posts were straight, but the second from the north end has a curve I will need to deal with. Although this picture makes it look like all of the posts are leaning to the outside, they are plumb on. I think is is keystoning from the camera lens (cellphone).



My plan is to finish the deck the week of June 30.



Now to the mystery of the disappearing water -


Our well, recovers at about 260 gallons a day, so it pumps into a 1700 gallon storage cistern, which in turn pumps into the pressure tank located in the furnace room for use in the house. I always turn off the water into the house when we leave, because I am always concerned about a leak that would pump the entire 1700 gallons in the house somewhere.


Over the last year I have periodically opened the manhole into the cistern to check the level and it always seems full, as you would expect given that we are only here on weekends.


Twice in May the cistern was empty on Sunday. We of course assumed the worst and figured the well had gone dry. So we had Rick's Pump service come out and check and had Dan Ainsworth fill the cistern. I also installed a float gauge so that I could check the water level easier and more accurately.

Since that time the cistern has always been full when we arrived on Friday night and over the course of the weekend the level would move down a couple of inches.

So imagine our surprise when on Sunday morning last weekend the cistern was empty again.

It was full Friday night.
It was only down a little on Saturday morning
And down about 6 inches late Saturday afternoon.

So Sunday morning I am looking for about 1600 gallons of water.

The ground wasn't wet where the water line goes from the cistern to the house.

It wasn't wet in the lower level.

It wasn't wet downhill from the house.

I went in to the cistern and there weren't any visible cracks.

The lower level concrete floor wasn't wet from below slab seepage.

There was no water dripping out a ceiling or wall.

Where did it go?

This is a mystery.

A possible clue.
- This only happens when we are there and the water valve is turned on.

So where did the water go?

If I couldn't find it, in the house or on the ground, did it go down the drain? How could it do that since there is no place where fresh water actually hooks up to the drain system. Ah but was a faucet or toilet running.

I went around and checked each one. All seemed good.

Another possible clue.
- All afternoon while working on the deck, Derek kept commenting on the sewage smell. To be clear, with our type of drain field and the soil it is in, we have been told that this can happen during certain weather changes and we have smelled it before.

So Monday morning, I called Rick's back and the first thing they asked was if I had a toilet running. I said no. I had run around and checked them all. They said they were going to ask their folks and call me back.

I couldn't wait so Monday afternoon, I called back and talked to Jack the tech who had been out in May to check the system. the first thing he asked was if I had a running toilet. I said no I had check them, but could a toilet empty a cistern in a day I asked. Jack said you bet he had seen it happen a number of times.

So Monday evening I am wondering where or how did I have a leak somewhere in the house that I couldn't find?

I had discounted that the leak was outside, as it only happens when we are there and the water is turned on.

But I was flummoxed, as I had checked everything inside.

Where did the water go?

Another clue: Derek was visiting us this weekend.

Monday evening Marlys and I walked to the downtown YMCA to lift weights. During the walk I recapped everything to her and what did I hear...the lower level toilet had been running on Saturday and she had had to go in and jiggle the handle to stop it.

Ahh... a suspect!

Why didn't I see it running on Sunday morning?

Because there was no water in the system so there was nothing to see running...duh! Explains why no leaks were found!

So I have a theory and that is that the lower level toilet has been running. That Marlys fixed it Saturday afternoon, but that Derek used it again afterwards and it opened up again.

On Monday June 30 we will check this out and see if I have sherlocked this correctly.

What do you think?

FIBArk

FIBArk is an annual festival that happens in Salida to celebrate everything rafting and kayaking. This was its 60th anniversary. I believe that FIBArk stands for First in Boating on the Arkansas River. The activities center around kayaking and rafting, but there is a festival and parade on Saturday.

Since this is about half way to Gunnison, we met Derek there to spend a day wandering around and eating the local fair(fare?).

And of course there were numerous beer gardens. We started in the New Belgium one on arriving.

Salida has gone through quite a bit of gentrification over the last 10 years, which means there are a lot of galleries and funky furniture stores.

A quick survey would say that we could become rich selling some of the items built for the house over the last couple of years based on the prices being gotten for some of the stuff being sold.

You should be able to see the Arkansas going by behind the stage in this picture.

Just to let you know the entertainment being provided here is by people singing karaoke to the thousands in attendance.

It is very entertaining if you can take the empathic embarrassment of the singers.

Although these pictures taken with my cellphone don't do it justice, Salida is at the southern exit of the valley and is surrounded by 14r's to the west and south. You can see the Collegiate's in the background at the end of the street.

We did get some work done last Sunday in that Marlys completed everything in the garage painting project and I got the deck alignment set with the rim joist and the versa-lam. Next weekend we set the posts and frame in the deck joists. the schedule is to compete it the week of 6/30 after a quick trip to Minnesota.

Last Weekend

We worked like dogs this weekend…well maybe not since Dusty didn’t do a damn thing except get in the way.

These clouds fooled us in that there was some virga dropping in the distance and we though some moisture was on the way, but alas it was not to pass.

We almost finished painting the garage, but we ran out of paint, again. And since I forgot to bring the paint sample when we ran into town, it is white. Marlys will finish it up next weekend.

Then it is on to the floor. I am thinking a gray trunk finish acrylic.

We also got the rear deck footing in, and even though I used the atv to cart the 16 - 80lbs sacks of sackcrete to the deck site it was still a bal…back breaker. We of course picked the hottest part of the day to set (& re-set) the batter boards, but it looks like the alignment turned out pretty good.

Don't make fun of the grass, growing anything other then cactus and yucca in this area takes a green thumb.

Along with buying paint, we got the deck materials ordered from Sonny’s and they should be delivered latter this week. Hopefully, it will get dropped close to the stick and tape. Since one of the items will be a 24’ versalam, getting it up the little hill to the back of the house is going to take help.

BTW: The platform laying on the ground in the background is going to be the floor of the ATV garage at some point in the future.

Tidal Effect Rock Watch:
It has moved up a little bit this week partially due to a snow and rain day on Thursday.

Let me end with a personal observation on dehydrating. On Saturday doing the morning work in the garage I didn’t drink water like I normally do, e.g. out of the Sun, cooler, etc. By the time we had moved outside and tackled the setting of the sonotubes and pouring the deck footing I was behind the hydration power curve. At this altitude, even if you are not sweating you are still respirating a lot of moisture. At day’s end I was really wiped out, more so then I should have been.

Remember if you aren’t going, then you aren’t drinking enough.

Memorial Day Week

The Memorial Day week at Pinon Rock has been packed with activities. It started with a visit by Kathy and Bill from Minnesota doing there shakedown cruise with their 5th wheel. This was literally a minute by minute voyage as they came through Wyoming during the tornado outbreak that hit Windsor Colorado.

By the time they reached our place the mountains were waiting to welcome them with….snow showers. That white in the background is an approaching wall of snow.

Bill had to replace the AC cover which blew off somewhere in route because of a water leakage.

We also took the opportunity to hike up West Antelope with Herb. Herb provided quite the nature narrative with his background in scatology and herbology (bit of a pun). We now know how to tell male from female Elk droppings. Has anyone ever heard of a Mountain Buttercup?

We were also wondering about all of the rocks that looked like they had been flipped over and learned that that would be bears looking for insects.

Herb in a real naturalist.

On the way back down the hill to our place, Kathy spotted a large black dog at Cliff’s pond. When it turned to run as we drove down the road it magically turned in to a small black bear, which high tailed it down toward Brown’s.

Good eye Cathy.

Monday we went rafting on the Arkansas. Marlys and I have been here 10 years and never done what is probably the biggest tourist activity in the area. We didn’t do the Gorge, but Big Horn Canyon was plenty. The snow from last winter is resulting is a heavy/dangerous run off that is expected to increase over the next few weeks. A number of rivers in the state have already had a deadly start to the season.

Tuesday, Marlys and I spent close to 8 hours at the Fremont County Commissioner Public Hearing on the Conditional Use Permit for Black Range Minerals Uranium Exploration. This is something that we have become quite involved in over the last 9 months, once we discovered what the nighttime lights were for on the SE flank of East Waugh last fall. Even though it is a few mile away we are concerned about water quality and property values.

My statement to the commission is available at: http://autumncreekranch.com/acportal/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=35&func=view&id=80&catid=24

I also seem to have been quoted a little out of context in the Canon City Daily Record: http://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/Article/96201.page

The issue is dividing the community along old/new residents lines and I hope that some type of compromise can be reached by the Commissioners. It has taken us 10 year to get this far in the Tallahassee Creek area to have it destroyed by an Australian mining company. I don’t envy Mike, Larry and Ed in trying to sort this out.

They should deliver their decision on June 9, stay tuned.

The Tiger moths are also out in abundance this year. Bill found 1 outside and after a little research I found out that they are a product of all of the “woolly bear” caterpillars that seem to be everywhere this spring.

We are also back in building mode as I attack the last major outdoor project in the house construction, namely the rear deck.

After consultation with my independent expert (Bill), it was decided that the attachment of the ledger for the deck to the house should be into the concrete of the basement instead of the rim joist of the upper floor. This keeps the house shell intact and puts the deck at an easy level to access with out a stairs to the ground, I will make a platfrom step from the rear door fo the house to the deck level.

I had initially started the work with the idea of drilling anchor holes into the concrete then inserting, a lag sleeve to secure a lag screw into, but this proved problematic as the sleeve would either spin or the lag screw would break.

After re-grouping, Redhead concrete studs were used as they could be inserted into the 5/8” holes I had drilled and provided for a larger load. The only problem is that the nice pattern I had laid out for the holes was hosed due to the broken off screws, so the result was not very symmetric, but it will be covered by decking.

The post foundation holes will be dug this week, and next week is reserved for concrete work.

After being sun burnt again and again and again... I have now decided to follow the example of “Herb the Naturalist” in that I put on sunscreen each morning before going out side.

Marlys began the project of painting the garage. We are attempting to use up some of the paint we found unsuitable for inside the house. We didn’t have enough. We cut the yellow glare of this stuff by mixing in the white ceiling paint also leftover. This will be a bright garage.

I have also been doing a very unscientific study of tidal effect in the area. This has been done mainly by picking up rocks as they appear around the patio and thorwing them downhill. The one in this photo was not even visible three weeks ago.

We will follow the progression of the rock in the second photo as it continues to emerge over the next few weeks.

For those of you unaware of tidal effect away from any large body of water, it is something that farmers have experienced forever in there fields, in that no matter how many rocks they remove, more will appear as they are drawn to the surface due to there higher mass.

In ending, this is a photo of a wire sculpture that Derek did last winter. The picture doesn’t due it justice.

I may be his dad, and not very objective, but his instructor said this was a “sell able” piece when critiqing it.

He is going to but a nicer wood base on it possibly using some of the remaining curly redwood we have.

Some folks have asked for a better picture of the Cowboy Sideboard, so here you go. You can clearly see in this picture the difference in tone between the heart and sap wood poplar used.
Until next time.

The Cowboy Sideboard is finally finished

The copy of a Molesworth cowboy sideboard I have been building for the last couple of months is finally finished.

The construction took a couple of weekends and the image routing/carving took another couple.

But it was the finishing that consumed the time. I finished this four times before it came out the acceptable.

It would have been easier to finish if I had done a better job of selecting lumber in that I got a mix of sap and heart poplar which is different in tone and accepts stain at different rates. Also Poplar is problematic to stain to begin with and I ended up belt and suspendering the staining by using a pre-stain conditioner and a gel stain.

The tops is covered in red leather which is a whole other story as to how to get enough without buying a whole hide.

All-in-all for the first substantial piece of furniture I have made I am pretty happy with it. But if I built another one I would ......

Next furniture project is a Molesworth inspired bedroom set, but first I have a deck to build on the rear of the house.

Heed the Call - A Short Story

Chapter 1 -

Last week I went to Minneapolis.

My flight landed at 7:10pm.

I cleared the airport in the rental car at 8:00pm.

At 8:30, I ordered 6 cheeseburgers and a sack of fries at.....

White Castle!

I really miss the Castle.

Chapter 2-

Wednesday I left for the airport at 9:30am.

At 9:40am, I ordered 4 cheeseburgers and a sack of fries at....

The no hassle Castle.

First and last stop.

It was a good trip.


Pat

Colorado's (dirty) little secrets.

In todays Denver Post it was mentioned of a new record being set this year, in that 17 people died at Colorado ski areas, either skiing or boarding so far this season. That nukber does not include those who died in accidents that happened outside of ski area boundries.

Its not that I am against these or other high risk sports, I just sometimes think that they are sold as a carnavial ride when in fact they aren't. There is no "test" that a skier/boarder needs to go through before they buy a lift ticket and ride the chair to the top (want to get my money's worth@$80/day) and head down the mountain out of control. And with the liability waiver that is part of the small print on the lift ticket there is little recourse for the other skiers that may/are endangered by those out of control. Yes I know many of these deaths are from impacts with tree/rocks/etc. and those hurt are limited to the person and there family (and those that responded), but sooner or later....

The other area where the "carnavial ride" aspect is sold is river rafting.

From the soapbox.

Pat

Its the End of March...and hopefully Winter

Another winter is coming to an end and not soon enough for us. Next week are heading to Las Vegas for a few days and hope to return to sprouting grass...since I planted 20 lbs of it Friday.

If you are wondering about the sorry looking Pinon in front of the patio, I have been taking it down piece by piece so Marlys won't know when it is gone and the view is un-obstructed. That of course didn't happen as she noticed the first branch removed last summer.

The Molesworth replica sideboard has reached the point fo finishing. The sideboard will be stained Vermont Maple which is a golden color and the raised tepee on the doors and the animal footprints will be a black lacquer.

The top will be covered in a reddish leather, if we can find it, with a black leather edge held on with large hammered tacks.

The drawer pulls and door knobs will be made from antler. Hopefully another couple of weekends should do it.

Then on to the next item...the rear deck or if Winter is still hanging on a end table for the living room.

I also found a way to get rid of the old boards that have been laying around the barn and believe it or not these are pretty comfortable.

Marlys and I talked quite a bit about the truck camper this weekend and we may start to look at a 5th wheel trailer for the temporary requirements of living at an RV park while we are still working. Looks like we can get one for less money and of course it will have more room.

Once we aren't be "full timing" , we would downsize to the TC.

We have got the truck to handle it either way...the mountain queen.

A slight Hiccup in the Plans.

This was our weekend to stay in town (Marlys haircut), so we went out to look at RV parks for the Truck Camper.

The good news is that we found a couple of really nice one.

The bad news is that because of micro bursting in the area of the foothills truck campers need to remain attached to the truck so that they don't get blown over. Now understand that this TC weights in at close to 5K and a few of the trailers we saw at the parks may have been in the 4K range, there were no exceptions. They are probably right in that the windstorms on the Front Range can be incredible.

We will need to refine our RV park research to areas probably east of I-25.

On another subject, the Molesworth Sideboard is coming along.

The carcass is built and next weekend I will finish the doors and drawers.

We had a heck of time finding the right stain and lacquer dye this weekend, finally going to Rockler. Marlys even let me go in unescorted, but she came in after I didn't leave fast enough to make sure my list hadn't expanded.

I ended up ordering the "hammered upholstery nails from Van Dykes (should have started there) and the next item on the "pick-up list" is the maroon leather for the top.

The other half of the new truck purchase.

Last night Marlys and I spent close to three hours at the Denver RV show looking at the few truck campers that were on our short list.

Okanagan - 117
Bigfoot 3000 Slide
Host Everest
Eagle Cap 1180

Other then the Bigfoot, all of the target campers had at least two slides, one being a rear sofa slide. It was pretty clear that we have the right truck to carry the load of any of these homes away from homes. In all cases though the dealer said they would add air springs and frame mounted hold downs.

The Bigfoot still seems to be the fit, finish and purpose built camper winner, but and this is a big one the slide is only for the dinette and wardrobe. It is a big slide, but it still has the feel of a truck camper inside.

The Everest is by far the most spacious but seemed a little cheap (hard to say that about a $50K truck camper) on the inside.

The Eagle Cap dealer said he didn't have one and would never have one....da da da. So we left there area, but not quick enough because we had to hear why Snow Rivers were the best for Elk hunting. He must have mistaken us for someone else, because we never mentioned anything about hunting or going off road, etc.

We spent a great deal of time going over the Okanagan, with both the dealer Rep (Hallmark Campers) and the factory Rep. We looked, poked and questioned most everything. A couple of observations; this camper is made for all season use and there cold weather testing (Truckcampermagazine.com) was impressive. The interior fabrics are not as fashionable as some of the others, but they were OK (pun). The storage is probably the biggest issue, but there is only so much space that can be crammed onto a truck. It had everything we were looking for; full kitchen (stainless steel), genset, thermopane windows, heated basement and tanks, complete awning (slides and side), outside speakers, shower (clean the dog) and BBQ. Electric jacks, satillite dish/antenna, dry bath (bigger then the one in our Jayco Trailer) and a real sofa. this camper also had flat floor slides (no step up into the slide areas).

And the colors will go well with the truck.

So, where are we going to take this behemoth? here are some of the places on the list;

Alaskan via the Alcan
Goose Bay, LAB via the Trans-Labrador Highway
New England in the fall
Daytona for the 500
Indianapolis for F1 (if it comes back) and the Brickyard 400
Bristol, TN
Talledega, baby
Las Vegas (Winter)
Texas (visit Tom and Joy @ the camp ground)
Arizona (visit whoever is down there when we are)
Florida (Camper just seem to fit in, in trailer land)
Munich for Octoberfest (OK we won't take the camper)
Detroit Autoshow (This will need to be a January Trip)
Wherever the spirit moves us to trek.

I also looked into biodeisel cookers this week and it looks like I won't be brewing any of that up anytime soon as they run $3k to $8k. I would need to brew-up a lot of cooking oil to pay that off. Besides I would be spending too much time collecting used oil from resturants.

So we had a question we never asked and wished we had as we walked to the car (trying to see how many times I could use we in one sentence);

Why do truck campers cost so much, when compared to trailers (tow behinds, 5'rs, toyhaulers), class B & C motorhomes, that have more space, stuff (cabinets, counters beds, etc.) and chassis?

The price of the Okanagan would buy a really nice RV in any of these other types. Even a Hallmark popup truch camper is going to run $20k-$30k+.

Pat

It was a Bittersweet Day.

Saturday we picked up the new truck.

This should have been a happy moment, but the whole way into Canon we talked about how this would be the last ride in our truck.

We remembered the trips we had taken in the truck over the last 9 years and how Derek had grow up riding in the back seat.

We saw and talked about many things riding in the truck.

Once when making the 19 hour trip back to the Twin Cites while passing through Denver we spotted a glow in the sky that we thought may have been city sky glow, but it seemed to far north. We turned on the radio thinking we would hear about a major forest fire, but we heard that it was a happening that rarely makes it this far south...the northern lights.

Or the listening to books on tape and staying in the truck at rest areas until the end of a chapter. I heard every Harry Potter book this way.

Watching Derek go from being small enough to sleep on the floor in the backseat to the 20 year old who said that the trip home last Christmas would probably be the last road trip with us for him.

And the plans. Lotsa plans on when to move. When to build. What we would do when we had the time.

I am sure that the new truck will become a member of the family as we have new adventures, but for now we keep thinking about the member that we left at a car dealership.

It was a great truck for us and I hope it gets a good home...it deserves it.

We Take the Next Step's.

Marlys and I took the next step in our plans to someday retire.

You need to read all of this post, so as not to thing it is just about buying a car, oops I guess I let it out of the bag.

We bought a new truck last weekend to replace our 3/4 ton 1999 Ford F250 Super Duty. This has been a great vehicle that has seen us through many of the events in our migration to Colorado started back in 1997. Our truck has 195K miles, but it is running strong (knock on wood).

But we needed a bigger one. What you say, a bigger one. Yes we need a bigger one to haul around our next weekday home.

Our apartment has been OK, but it isn't our place, so we are going to buy a truck camper and full-time it, at least on weekday's and vacations and going to NASCAR races and driving up the Alcan to Alaska and going to Goose Bay Labrador, via the Trans-Labrabor highway.

We are looking at two different floorplans of Okanagan truck campers. We are targeting these because they have slideout that significantly increase the feeling of size when inside. This was one of the same things that lead us to buy the trailer we stayed in at Pinon Rock until we built the house last year.

These campers are built in BC and are year-round rated so that we can use them when we go skiing or work my next targeted job as a greeter at Breckinridge during the ski season.

You probably noticed that they both have "living room" areas with sofas. Heck you can even get an optional fireplace (electric).

The construction is also different from other campers (and most other RV's) in that it uses monocoque wall construction vs. an aluminum or wood frame. Although there is wood and aluminum in the walls the interior and exterior skins are glued and pinch sealed together, making for a strong stressed skin construction.

And they weight in the 4K lbs range, which is the reason for the big truck.

But we plan to leave the apartment and live in camper moving around between different Walmart parking lots on a nightly basis. There are 20 stores in the Denver metro area so we should have a pretty good selection.

Not really.

Well at least the Walmart parking lot part.

We are going to look for a year-round RV Park. We have a couple in mind closer to the mountains.

This will be the great experiment.

BTW: We bought another Ford. A F-450 Super Duty King Ranch model. It cost as much as our first house. It also has some options that I can't figure out why they would put them on a "man's" truck, like a navigation system. Everyone knows that guy's never get lost. I am sure Marlys will like it.

Here is a picture I plagerized from a Ebay ad.

Annual John Koskinen Memorial Toast

Four years ago last week a dear friend of mine John Koskinen passed away. John and I had made a number of trips to the Mountains of Colorado and California over the years and although he was a "water person" we talked about living here.

Since the house was built it has always been in the back of my mind that, Marlys and I never got to share it with the John.

So "Krankman" here is the annual grog lift in your memory!