Phoenix hits the water....

The beginning of the day, after rain storm #2. The Phoenix is on the ground and the framework of the second kayak is on the sawhorses. Chris and I left at 3 that day due to thunderstorms, but at least the kayak got out in the water before that.
And in the water with grace. Sure the wind was whipping up white caps, and in fact the waves actually buried the bow under water a couple of times. Still, it rides well.
And I almost tip it into the river. At this point I am trying to get it turned around so I don't catch waves broadside.
That look of severe concentration is just me trying to figure angles for docking again.
And those were the others on the water and the dark clouds overhead.

Burlington and all of that...

So I took a trip up to Burlington last weekend, something that I have been far too slow in putting down in this digital tome. I am planning to move up there, but constrained by finances I decided for a visit first (which is a new thing for me, I have moved across the country having never been there before). It is about 700 miles from Pittsburgh so I had a stop-over with my friend Mike in Rochester NY. The second half of the ride was through the Adirondack State Park with stunning roads and woods, something that caused me trouble later. The city stands much like I remember from when my sister lived there when I was 8 years old. This is Church Street, the pedestrian walkway that is basically downtown. Lots of good food and interesting places...

This is my compatriot in taking names and kicking asses, Heather, on the shore of Lake Champlain.

This is from the southern point of Lake Champlain where I crossed over to the Vermont side. Originally a fort, there are only cool ruins left. An excellent place for lunch if I may say so.And there were Donkey Farms... really.

The trip home was beautiful and despite a speeding ticket was a collection of curving roads and clear skies that just makes a motorcycle sing.

The Shield

Here it is, I haven't attached a hand yet. It is asymmetrical by design before you all start doubting my measuring abilities....

Maine Missives

I almost feel a kind of Catholic guilt as I confess I have been a bit remiss in not blogging about my trip to Maine play by play, but then again I WAS to busy having fun. And as some of that fun is none of your damn business I will only focus on the highlights in no specific order: seeing Heather again, Rosemary Lamb, lots of laughter, practicing Akiedo, swing dancing and waltzing in quick succession...

A walk with Chance (Heather's dog) through a graveyard which turned into a river trail whose end was fortified with what looks like tank traps.

The mighty Lewiston upper falls were once used for water power but not any more...

The original turbines still sit, a bit forlorn really, outside of the boarded up building it use to power.

Homemade sushi lovingly made and consumed with gluttony (and of course all her rolls turned out perfectly, beginner's luck I say) with Eddie Izzard stand-up on the Laptop...

Driving through the Maine outback and roughing it through roads covered with snow thanks to a sure-footed Subaru until the snow deepened to about a foot deep and we could not continue on...

The alternate roads we took lead us through this beautiful landscape...

And finally to this gorge where the only thought that kept going through my mind was how damn cold the water looked...

And this is a watercolor of a set of Oxbows I did for an empty frame that demanded something fill them...

I returned to Pittsburgh this morning. At 5AM I sat the Portland Airport waiting for an hour past our scheduled departure as they got my plane ready after a delay due to an ominous sounding "computer error." I watched with amusement as a soda vending machine started spitting quarter at a lady who was just trying to buy a soda (around maybe $8 worth or so). The closest thing to Vegas Slot in Portland, and given the hour delay for my flight, the only lucky part of it.

There was an iconographic moment in the bus ride home from the Pittsburgh Airport. Right before you get to downtown there is a 150 foot tall cliff on the riverbank, and as I peered into the bare trees I saw two thing, one was a pile of trash common to a homeless squatting area, and in the middle of it like a king presiding over an empty court, a huge turkey with his tail feathers on display. On the side of a cliff. 300 yards from downtown. Stock-still.

It only can get stranger from there.

Shaving and Shields... Really

This is my new very, very sharp straight edge DOVO razor. I bought this to remove all the frustrating expensive purchasing and disposal of cartridges and to get a much closer shave without having to rinse the damn Mach 3 every inch of cutting. First shave and I like the results!

I started making a shield for SCA fight with Steve last night as well. On the right you see the shield form shored up with some scrap wood. The sheet of plywood on top is waiting for the glue in the bottle and another piece of plywood.


Once the the two pieces are assembled you start screwing the wood down to the form with wood screw, alternating back and forth to avoid buckling.


Below you can see the whole thing screwed down, it is going to stay like that for a couple of days so the glue can set, then I will cut out the shape I want, attach handles and paint it. I have a shape in mind, but I figure a week for glue to fully cure and for my mind to nitpick problems I'll be sure enough to cut into it.

The Paddle is Done!

So this is the paddle done and oiled. I finished shaping it today out on the porch, then went at it with a disc sander on my drill. A little of Danish Oil to help keep it waterproof and the only thing left to do is dip it in some water. The shape may look odd to those use to normal kayak paddles and this because this is based on the Greenland and Inuit paddles. Its narrow shape reduced windage in the up blade in strong weather, the narrow profile marginally reduce its power but makes it far less fatiguing, useful if you want to take longer trips. I have always used the normal paddle type so this should be interesting to use. Total cost because I managed to get the wood for free (but the pine 2"x4"x8' would cost around $4) would be $8 for Danish Oil and $6 for sanding block and sanding disc for my drill. Total time approximately 10 hours.

Here are a couple of very useful sites and basically what I read to make this:
http://www.qajaqusa.org/QK/makegreen2.pdf
http://www.seacanoe.org/grnpadle.htm
http://www.guillemot-kayaks.com/Building/GreenlandPaddle.html

Shavings of time

There it is after a lot of rough shaping, around 6 hours or so. As you can see I removed a lot of wood with a block plane and a drawknife. Tomorrow I will sand and then stain it.