Shetucket River Paddle

I haven't posted about a paddle in a long time, but this one was kind of "special". Went with Judy, Ed, and Bobby of the Branford Kayaking group.

We put in at a campground in Sprague. The Quick Water started immediately. The sign near the put-in recommended to check the flow rate with the USCG website, and that "if the rate is below 400, expect a scratchy ride". It was just 400, and we had a scratchy ride indeed. The problem wasn't the speed as much as the depth-Judy, Ed, and I all got caught on rocks at one point. While I was caught, it looked like I was moving backwards briskly 😉

There were other dicey spots, but the water got deeper, and the quick water was actually fun. The river widened & deepened. We passed two large islands, and began to see scenery beyond the woods.

Portage at the Occam Dam. The take-out was an easy, sandy beach. We took a typical snack break. The put-back-in was another story-steep slope to the water, loose/jagged rocks, fishermen, and a quick drop-off in the water. We managed it with teamwork.

After the dam, the water was flat all the way to the take-out. 6+ miles total.

As usual, the scrapes were more unnerving than the actual damage. This hull needs work anyway 😉

Total Solar Eclipse From Lake Placid, NY

 Reservations made six moths ago, stressing the weather report for a week, anxious about traffic, I made my way to Lake Placid. Drive up was easy, good weather, but not without surprises. North of Albany, exits were fairly routine as far as amenities were concerned, but the further north I went, the less there was. The exit sign promised a knife & fork, but it consisted of a Stewart's Shop-ugh!-a notch of two below Henny Penny.

I detoured to Lake George Village in search of lunch. I didn't really find any (lots of stuff was seasonally closed), but I'm glad I saw this place! It was like a 50's resort well maintained and preserved, from the pre-interstate era when it was more of a "destination".

I left I-87 at Rt. 73. I was immediately amazed by the scenic beauty of the road: now I was well into The Adirondacks. 73 is a winding valley road, and frequently marked with signs for roadside parking and trailheads. I also got a great sub at a local deli.

 Real mountains began to appear, prominent and "otherly". The mountain at left was frequently visible from the entire area. Later in the day, I talked to some local dudes who were photographing by the roadside, and they said that the denuded areas were from rockslides.

These Adirondacks had a different quality to my familiar Greens of Vermont and Whites of New Hampshire. The Greens are rounder and forested, a comfy Middle-Earth feeling. The Whites are like bold, solid sculptures of granite. These are tough, scarred, steep mountains, snow-capped in April, and a little intimidating, seemingly able to drop a boulder on you at random as you drive by. 

Lake Placid preserves infrastructure from the 1980 Olympics, almost like the remnants of the 1964 World's Fair in Queens, but in better repair. I don't know if these ski jumps are still used, but I was amazed at how close to the road they were. Obviously impossible, but it looks like a jumper could land on the road! Similarly, the Speed Skating Oval is located directly on Main St, in front of the High School. In 1980, on T.V, these things looked remote and huge.

My digs in LP were pretty good & convenient. There  was a good deal of car and foot traffic, but nothing overwhelming. Dinner was frustrating-prices were outrageous, and they tended to stop serving food at 9:00, on that of all nights!

Monday morning after paying outrageous prices for gas and breakfast, I did some driving around. 

Whiteface Mountain ski area. Few  cars in the parking lot at 7:30, and the lot isn't that huge. At center, you can see rockslide areas, which are sometimes actually open for skiing.

This helped me figure something out about the area. While historic, this place just isn't a really hot ski destination. Much further to drive than Hunter, Gore, and West mountains, and I read reports of frequently windblown and icy conditions. For all that driving, it would be easier to go to Stowe, Killington, or other Vermont destinations. What makes a mountain fine for racing doesn't make it fine for recreation. It also goes the other way-Park City Utah's unpredictable frequent dumps of powder make it a recreational dream, but a racing problem.

I was advised by a Local to gas up/food up and Get Out Of Dodge in the direction of the highway well before the 2:15 onset. After looking at a few spots, I settled in at a local Park in Keene, partway back to the highway. Nice spot! In fact I was somewhat relieved that the eclipse viewing was less commercialized than it might have been. Parking was free, though limited, and they even had a small lot reserved for Low Physical Mobility viewers. Abundant free viewing glasses. Kudos to the town of Keene!

It was two hours early, and I'm not that good at waiting. Made the acquaintance of my parking neighbors, a nice couple from Maryland, and walked around the field a lot. The field was large, and the small number of people spread out comfortably. It was mainly a Family Crowd, and the younger groups were well behaved, no loud music or smell of pot.

The first chip! Stressing about the photo technique, but it turned out fine.

There was a very thin layer of cirrus clouds which didn't affect viewing, but I think it drove my autofocus nuts. Every photo took several tries to get the camera to take the picture  in focus.

Oddly, with half the Sun covered, you wouldn't have noticed anything weird without observing through glasses.

At this point, it was getting a little strange, but still nothing you would have noticed.

Totality! It seemed to happen fast-one minute it was "just kinda dark", then it was indescribable! People cheered. You couldn't help it. You could look directly at it, and I removed my sun filter, and blazed away, thrilled with the quality of the images. Also the temperature dropped a good twenty degrees. I wonder how the Flat-Earth Conspiracy Theorists explain this?

I didn't get a good photo of the "Diamond Ring Effect". It happened very fast, and I couldn't get my sun filter back on in time.

I hung out long enough to get this "back out" photo.

My plan was to leave shortly after the Totality, and beat the traffic. It turned out to be "everybody else's" plan as well. Drive home was tough, averaging 22 mph all the way to Lake George, where it finally eased up. Small price to pay for the experience of a lifetime!

 

Return To Woodworking

 Due to various issues, I believe I only went kayaking three times last year. I didn't build one this winter, and my boats don't even need varnishing, so I decided to turn my attention to  a fairly challenging furniture project.

As for the title, I mean going back to a time when projects required a learning curve. I have made a few things in the last few years, but they were easy, relying on techniques I already knew well. The above gizmo will be a "foot" for a dresser. I cut the cove by running the board over the table saw blade at an angle, and the fancywork with the scroll saw.

I got a little better at cutting miters, due to the use of a good blade, and a "Digital Cube Angle Finder". 

Gluing up panels was another story. I was disappointed by the quality of the 4/4 Philippine Mahogany at General Woodcraft, so I looked elsewhere and found some at The Wood Rack in Branford, where they called it "Sapele". I got what I thought were some good boards, but they plagued me with warp & twist, despite trying every "heroic" remedy in You Tube videos. I found some better material at the lumberyard, sold as "Mahogany Deck Boards. It was 5-1/2" wide and 5/4" thick, requiring more milling, but at least it "behaves".

My surface planer was also getting tricky in its old age. I made a "sled" to help prevent snipe, but its still a little challenging.

After I managed to make two acceptable side panels, I made this jig for routing dovetail slots out of Melamine. It was difficult. For some reason, these things used to be easier.

While I still had some leftover Melamine, I made this fence arrangement for routing dovetails on the end of boards. The fence has a hole just slightly larger than the bit, and so does the sheet of Lexan it holds down. Trial And Error on scrap pieces for the depth and width of the cut, and a square piece of scrap follows the board to prevent rocking.

Putting the frame together. It seemed like almost every part had to have the dovetail custom-cut to fit. I resorted to epoxy on the loose fits 😉

 

Construction Clamp-A-Thon

After constructing the case, I moved it upstairs before it got too heavy.

Top on. I felt that It might have looked a little better if it had more overhang.

On second thought, I removed the moldings from the top (easier than I thought), and replaced them. I cut the pieces thinner, which showed more of the overhanging top, and made the clamping easier.

Drawer. I thought of various ways to construct these, but went with a sliding dovetail. 

The back corners are simply butt jointed and screwed-and-glued. The usual dado for the bottom plywood. I recycled plywood from the old dresser.

Cockbeading on the drawer fronts. I cut the edge of a board with a "fancy" router bit that had a bead in it, then sawed away the bead, leaving a strip with a beaded end. The drawer was too big and heavy to be used on the router table, so I clamped a stop block to the base of the router. 

I got slightly better at making miter joints fit, but of course I ran out of pieces and had to make more!




Drawer slide. I made these of red oak recycled from the old dresser. I'll make center rails to go between the frame of the same wood.

Center rail. I cut a notch in the back of the drawer. Placing these is going to be kind of tricky....

.....and it was. As a drawer stop, it was fairly easy to adjust, but much harder side-to-side. I resorted to cutting a slot in the front of the rail, and tweaking side-to-side until the drawer went all the way in without hitting the sides.

I'm trying Watco's Danish Oil for a finish. I chose the "Dark Walnut" color, which looks pretty dark on the mahogany, but it seems to hide the color differences between the pieces.

I did two applications of the "Dark Walnut", then switched to "Natural" for the third coat. For the fourth coat, I applied Natural with #600 sandpaper and wiped it off. It makes a huge difference.

After 5 (maybe overkill?) coats of Danish Oil, it still seems a bit "tender", even after 2 days of drying. Looks pretty O.K. The cool thing is that I can go back to it and touch the finish up if I want to.

Working on the upper dresser. I found plenty of wood to recycle from the old dresser. This time I decided to cut the grooves all the way through, since most of the difficulties I had were from trying to stop the cut for the half-blind dovetails. I cut the slots all the way across to avoid alignment problems. I also made all the cuts on the router table, with the bit at the same setting. Somehow, this all went easier than expected.
 

Drawers. I made the upper drawers the same way as the others: dovetails in the front and butt joints in the rear. I got the idea to make wooden slides, but decided that dovetails would be too difficult.

I made there of recycled oak. The top piece will attach to the case, and also serve as a drawer stop.

Trying to align the placement of the female part. Shims center the rear of the drawer, and I drew the outline of the slide on the case. No center slide. Predictably, this required much finagleing, multiple drill holes, etc.

I did have to remake the rails for a better side-to-side fit, but it came out really good.

Almost ready for finishing.

Finished, and in its place. The Danish Oil is again going to take "forever" to cure completely, but I'm fairly satisfied with the result.

Yoda's House in New Haven (Foam House)

 Historically, this thing was an experimental construction by Yale University dating to 1968.

If you look up a photo of it when it was new, it appears to have been built by spreading expanding plastic foam over a frame of inflated bags. The decayed state makes it look mysterious and slightly creepy-one would wonder WTF type of building it once was. I'd probably have guessed that it was some kind of alternatively-built utility building having to do with the nearby Yale Golf Course.

What I went through to find this thing! For various reasons, I was without a car or P.C. for two months, forcing to use my Slow Android Stupidphone to surf the web. it's a drag to work with 2" maps. I had taken up hiking in Maltby Lakes, and first heard of it because someone had placed a pin on Google Maps that said "Turnoff for foam house". I didn't know what that was (do they remove foam from the reservoir water there?)  but a search piqued my interest. I ended up on https://www.ctmuseumquest.com/, a very fine and interesting site where the guy describes hiking in the Maltby Lakes Recreational Area. He mentions hearing that the Foam House was somewhere near the Orange Trail, but he didn't search for it. 

This coincided roughly with the pin on Google maps, so I hiked the Orange and White trails looking for a side trail, but found none. I bushwhacked to nearby the golf course, but felt uncomfortable when I saw a cart. For all I know, Yale has the perimeter on camera. As it turns out, this area is nowhere near the structure.

Searching also turned up The Yale Nature Preserve, and  this website https://theairlandandsea.com/2020/04/yale-nature-preserve-trail-guide.html that mentions the Foam House. The preserve is a nice find in of itself, occupying the land in between the Golf Course and Merritt Parkway. He correctly states that the House is located near the southwest corner of the golf course, however when I hiked the Preserve, I saw no sign of it, nor any side trails. Nice hike anyway. 

I finally found it by following the White Trail in Maltby Lakes to a northerly bump just south of the golf course, and bushwhacked  toward the southwest corner of the Course, marking the way with sticks and little cairns. Remember, you should have a permit to hike Maltby Lakes 😉!

It sits on a little cliff about 100 yards from the fairway.

Moss covers the foam, making it blend into the landscape.

Porthole-like windows

Scraps of foam. I'm actually surprised at the low  level of vandalism and graffiti. Maltby Lakes was only opened to recreational use a few years ago, The Yale Nature Preserve is fairly obscure, and Yale never bothered to demolish the House.

Once inside, it doesn't really feel like a building any more, the roof having collapsed. As an experiment, it shows just how non-biodegradable foam plastic is.

Once I got back to my PC, I saw that Mapcarta gives an accurate location. 

 

Building a Shed

After some concern about the "legality" of it, I decided to build a shed. I'm tired of lugging certain tools out of the basement. 

I dug 8" holes for a bed of gravel and two blocks. I leveled the blocks by adding or removing gravel. Leveling is weird: you tweak and tweak, "push-me-pull-you", and when it seems like you'll never get it, voila! its level! Its also weird how things that are measured level never seem to look that way by eye...?

The floor framed. My bubble level "swears" that its all level, but it still looks "funny". These are pressure-treated 2x6"s. I considered building the entire shed of P.T, but I didn't want to deal with the weight and blade-killing properties. The rest will be of water-sealed plain lumber. 

Decked. 

It doesn't look like much from a distance, but man this was heavy! I eschewed the carriage bolts called for in the plans, and attached the top piece with six deck screws each. The assembly had a mind of its own, and I fumbled and bumbled with clamps, scabs, etc. until I got it up there, something like plumb. I'm considering putting the front supports up individually (but I probably won't 😏) 

Ok, I didn't put the front posts up individually 😏. The front posts are shorter and lighter, so the whole assembly was easier to handle. The rear wall is attached with 4" carriage bolts and nuts, but they was really difficult to reach on the ground, so I resorted to 4" lag screws.

Its fun to watch the parts go together after all that measuring. I don't really do many carpentry projects.

Putting the rafters up brought a surprise. I made one "master" rafter, and used it to measure all the cuts on the others. I tried the fit all the way on the left side, and it was good. As I put more rafters up, I noticed that they looked "too short". I measured the distance between the uprights, and they were 1" further apart on the right. The rear/upper support had warped! Ratchet Strap Brute Force brought everything back together.

Once the rafters were up, I could see that this was going to be a building you can't stand up straight in.

The back wall up. The plans call for a 1" space between the boards, but I thought that was excessive and would have made it look too  much like "skid wood", so I went for 1/2" spaces. The plans also called for 8" deck boards, but I went for 6" instead. Their design is very open-air, but I want it to look more "like a building"

Doing the sides was straightforward enough until I got to the angle cuts. I don't get along well with bevels.

The trim boards went up fairly well, with some inaccuracies. I decided to stop stressing it so much- "Its a shed, not a kayak!". Roofing was routine. Looks a little lumpy.

I have to cut 14 pieces to the same length for the doors. After watching videos and considering various arrangements with the table and Skill saws, I made one "master" and used it as a  template to cut the others. They come out remarkably good, without marks from the power saws' blades or high-RPM mistakes. Using hand tools for 14 pieces seems more tedious than it is once you get into it.

Complete! I decided to back off a little on the Precision Measuring, and it looks fine. The doors were surprisingly heavy, and required Finagling Apparatus to get them in. Things may not be aligned ultra-precise, but... "Its a shed, not a kayak! 😁