Category: Projects

April 9, 2024 – Archiving, The Old Fashioned Way

April 9, 2024 / / 0 Comments

What happens when your cloud drive starts to fill up? I am not there yet, I have probably only used a quarter of it. But what I didn’t know was that the cloud function synchronizes everything to my hard drive and I don’t have a free terabyte to do so. So, I am going to start archiving some stuff off of the cloud.

Many years ago, I was in charge of the physical act of backing up when I worked at the lab. I would burn data to DVD on a month by month basis. This is an option for things that don’t need immediate recall. I tried my DVD burner and while it could read disks, the write portion failed.

I thought about my options. I moved my mechanical hard-drive from my laptop to my desktop computer. This is a decent option because a mechanical drive failure can be re-built from the One Drive synchronization. Then, I resynched everything to that location. That at least gave me breathing room.

At some point, that is going to run out of room as well. So, I thought about media again. Each podcast I make runs between 1-2 GB with the raw files and these are things that I really don’t access other than to look for episode numbers or certain content. I decided to order another DVD burner. I was just about to start archiving things and then a thought occurred to me, what about Blue Ray?

It turns out that DVD only holds 4.7 GB of data making this project take forever (over 20 disks). The newest quadruple layer Blue Ray burners can do up to 100GB per disk. That is for me, I ordered one of those. I am waiting for it to arrive and then I will start archiving certain items particularly all of the AltF4.co content.

Do I think that there is any perfect solution? Ideally, I would have a backup array of hard-drives that had infinite storage and access at my finger tips. The downside of disks is that they can degrade and technology moves on. I think about the stuff I have on 3.5″ floppy drives that I have never accessed since I moved to a computer without a floppy drive. The good news is I still have a floppy drive in an old computer if I really wanted the files and you can buy a USB floppy drive for $30.

It is definitely a new world. My laptop does not have an optical drive or even an expansion slot. Policies on business owned computers prevent any sort of plugin devices, everything is moved electronically via the network. Disk images have to be ‘mounted’ in a faux drive fashion to emulate physical media. In many ways, a physical device is simpler and easier. I don’t like all that run around to get around having the device.

Other options would be an external hard-drive but those are not infallible either. I might eventually do both, but for now I just want to make sure that I do not have a problem. I am going with BD-R at 25GB per disk.

End Your Programming Routine: In the old, old days the professional way to go was tape back-up. That still may be used, I don’t know. We had Zip and then Jazz drives, then CD, DVD and now Blue Ray. It is not likely that I will really ever need these files again, but I hate to just delete them if I can get them into a easily storable and compact fashion. It is my life’s work after all.

March 27, 2024 – The 1990s Called, They Want Their Fountain Back

March 27, 2024 /

Spring is in the air. No, it is not exactly here but I think that we are past the worst of winter. A water feature that I purchased for my wife’s birthday a couple of years ago sat idly on the deck. I know for a lot of people, the sound of water brings serenity. Not me, but she wanted it on.

She came in frantic saying that it was broken. I feared that freezing weather might break the glazed clay structure. I had drained all the water, but that wasn’t enough as the base had split. I felt bad because nerves about upcoming biopsy was getting the best of her. Sure, we can replace it but that isn’t going to calm nerves the night before a hospital stay and potentially life altering information.

Back in the late 1990s there was a trend to to have these small, table-top, serenity fountains. We had one as well (from here on out, I will call it mine). It had sat in storage for years (and years). I remembered that we had it, so I sprung into action.

The one I had was home built, meaning the pump was purchased separately from the bowl and the bedrock and the focal rock. We had used a piece of bamboo to conceal some PVC tube from the pump and it never quite flowed the way we wanted it. After a month or so of running, the bamboo would break and then I would run around and try to find a suitable replacement. To top it off, I filled the bowl with aquarium gravel and that took all of the volume in the bowl so it was always running dry.

Being much older and wiser (and tool richer) now, I thought I will drill a hole in the focal rock for the water to come out of. Forget the bamboo and the tubing and it will look a lot nicer too. The roughly and poorly adhered slices of slate cemented together broke in three pieces. but I did get a through hole in two of the pieces. So, I forced the PVC tubing through the two so that they would roughly look like they belonged.

I have some work to do still. But, you can see it is working and I think it looks better than it did before. I want to put some hardware cloth down for the rocks to sit on. I tried a couple of steel rods that I had with some window screen over the top. It kind of worked, but I didn’t have time to wait for serenity.

Changes to make.

  1. Weld up a steel super structure.
  2. Purchase hardware cloth (wire mesh) and cut to fit the bowl
  3. Layer the window screen on top of the hardware cloth
  4. Adhere the two pieces of focal rock back together and place
  5. Finally, add the base rock
  6. Maybe, embellish a little more with craft store or aquarium finds
  7. And now we are back in the 1990s, but much better

End Your Programming Routine: This fountain does not make the noise of the outdoor fountain. But, I think it has the potential to look nice and it does take it out of storage. I can also put it in a place that my wife can enjoy it while going through treatment even if winter continues.

February 27, 2024 – My First Stiches

February 27, 2024 /

Back in my day… I started middle school in 1986. As a sixth grader, we were required to take a whole year of survey classes. We had art, choir, shop class and home economics. I didn’t think too much of it. While my family lived a home economics lifestyle, it wasn’t something that I had done much of it, but I had been around it my whole life. We baked cookies and learned how to sew.

Our project was to make a drawstring bag using a sewing machine. We had to supply our own fabric, but that was easy because my mom had a whole chest of it. I remember completing it in a couple of days. I don’t remember much about it but I am guessing that I probably didn’t do the best job. Sewing is a skill that requires practice.

Learning to use the sewing machine came in handy when I was at home and had access to one. Occasionally, I would need to put a patch on my Boy Scout uniform and my mom didn’t get around to it. There was the periodic mend that needed to be made as well.

As time would have have it, I have been away from sewing machines a long time. It had been on my mind to pickup an inexpensive second, hand machine when I had the opportunity. I guess you could say I inherited one as I claimed my mother-in-laws machine as we were cleaning out the storage unit last year. But, it didn’t help much because I couldn’t remember a thing.

I watched a couple YouTube videos on how to load the machine. The one that was actually the most helpful was an eight year old (guessing) loading a simple Singer. This one is old and pretty basic, but it is well made. So, after watching the video three times, I got the thread loaded. Fortunately, the basic operation hasn’t changed much over the years. I’d have to say that if it wasn’t for my past experience helping me with what I thought I knew, I don’t think I would have got enough information from the videos alone.

The picture on the right was my first attempt. As you can see I kind of started out as a mess. But that is OK. I am simply mending the pocket of my sweat pants. For years now, the seam between the back panel and my pocket has been coming apart. It isn’t a huge deal but more often than not when I try to stick something in my pocket, it ends up going down my pant leg, which is annoying

I could have done it by hand. And I would have if I didn’t have a sewing machine. But, I have been sitting on this for over a year waiting to figure out how to use it. I took the opportunity to do it. I have a bigger project in mind. My son needs all of his merit badges sewn onto a sash. He is Eagle Scout bound and it would be good to finally get this completed.

Sewing patches by hand is not easy. Pushing through the thick material with a needle and fingers is slow going. To make matters worse, most of the ones I have sewn by hand have eventually fallen off. My knots break and then it all starts coming undone.

I got my pant’s mended. I am ready to take on the next challenge. I probably need to practice before I do some more public facing stitching. The good news is that I have learned how to use a seam ripper too. The cutting is permanent but the stitching can be redone.

End Your Programming Routine: I think that it is valuable to have a sewing machine and know how to use it. Mending used to be a valuable skill, now we just replace items. But, there may come a day when that is not possible. My wife has already given me a pillow case to fix now that I am an expert. We will see how long it takes me to get around to that.

February 21, 2024 – Same Old, Same Old…

February 21, 2024 /

I have mentioned before that my wife likes to binge watch shows. What has been on for the last couple of months is ‘Deadliest Catch’. In fact, it is on right now as I am typing this out. I haven’t heard this much in the later seasons but they liked to use this term ‘grinding’.

Grinding means that to make their goal, they have to just keep working. They don’t look at the clock, they don’t take a break, they don’t worry about the conditions, they don’t really even try to take stock in what is currently the status of their catch is. They just keep grinding.

That is where I am at, grinding. I probably have too many things going on at one time. I got ahead with my culinary book club reading and so I started “The Boys In the Boat” that I got for Christmas and continuing to read “The Inferno”. I have been pecking at my duct project. The next run is going to be more complicated with wiring in the way. I am still running into Linux problems getting my software scanner done.

I tapped one of my kegs for super bowl to get promptly plugged. I got to thinking that my valve was bad and so I changed it. It promptly got plugged again. After doing this six more times, I gave up. It is hops plugging it up from my dry hopping. I am going to have to filter this keg before I use it. Another thing to do.

Lesson learned that all the loose hops did not settle to the bottom after lagering. I like the effect, finally a homebrew that has some teeth to it from the hops. So, I think I will keep experimenting with dry hopping. But, it also means that filtration is required before kegging. Since this is my last keg, I really should get to brewing my next one

I also upgraded a scope on one of my air rifles. The main reason I did that is my eyesight is starting to degrade. I noticed that the open sights on my son’s Crossman 760 were really limiting. So, I decided to move the chinsy 4×12, $10 scope off of one of my rifles to a whole honking $30 variety. Anything will be better than nothing on that old rifle. I have been plinking away at getting those things sighted in.

I have projects in the waiting, so I am not just letting off the gas, I am just not done with anything. I like my work on AltF4 to be reflective of completion, not just progress unless there is something to learn. That is what generated today’s title. I have been holding onto this one for almost a week now waiting for something to break and it just has not. Sometimes you have to grind.

I will remind you that the reason for the duct project was in preparation for a wine cellar build. I am actually beyond where I needed to be to work on that project but it has made so much difference that I might as well finish this off before starting something new. I am amassing parts for a CB radio installation in my pickup. I have wooden valence to build. I should be starting seeds right now. There is going to be another culinary book tomorrow and I still have all the current things going that I want to finish.

I sometimes have problems getting motivated in the winter. It is dark and cold and wet and I just don’t feel like I have the energy to do anything. Besides that, I have other reasons (not excuses) for me making slow progress that I am not ready to discuss. I will likely have more information soon but I want to be absolutely concrete about the details.

End Your Programming Routine: So, a cliffhanger for the ending. I don’t have a lot of insight on this post other than you don’t finish a big job without putting one foot in front of the other. In other words, you gotta grind. Some day I will look up and it will be done, until that keep working.

February 20, 2024 – What the Heck is UEFI?

February 20, 2024 /

For the last couple of months, UEFI has been irritating me. I am going to get into what it is in a minute. A couple weeks ago I set off to fix the situation and then I really messed things up. So much so that I actually bought a new solid state hard drive (SSD) to start over. This was an attempt to make progress on my Software Defined Radio scanner project.

First let me define what UEFI means. This is an acronym for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface. If you do not do what I do, then you may never see it. There is a selector screen before the operating system boots up. In my case, I can choose between starting Linux or Windows.

This is an old computer that was inherited. I wanted to keep it in case we needed some data from it, but I did not have the password to login to Windows. By running Linux, I can access anything on the hard drive. This is also part of my long running experiment with Linux which will eventually become my software defined radio police scanner.

For several months now, I have been getting notifications that my UEFI driver was out of date. It wouldn’t be so bad except for the fact that it notifies me twice a day that it is out of date. At first, it was a problem for later, which became months. Then I set out trying to fix it.

It turns out that the UEFI driver has a Microsoft signature. I thought that maybe if I could add an account to Windows, I could run the driver update there. Once I selected boot to Windows, it was a one way street. After the Windows path was chosen, there was no going back to having the Linux option. So then I started changing settings in the BIOS. I messed the configuration up so that it wouldn’t boot Windows either.

I saw some options to go into ‘Safe Mode’ make a recovery disk and all of that. But, the truth is that this machine also has Windows 10 and is just slightly newer than my primary desktop. I highly suspected that it was not going to make the Windows 11 cutoff and I felt like all of that effort would be for little gain anyway.

I made the decision that I was going to start over. Solid State Hard drives are cheap. I paid $30 for a 512 GB drive. If you haven’t gone from disk based drives to and SSD, it it hard to explain how much better things work. I firmly believe that my Windows 7 computer runs better now than it did when I bought it in 2012. In fact, that computer runs better than my significantly more powerful laptop from 2018. I am going to be changing it to an SSD as well after I get a few other projects completed. But, let’s get back to the subject at hand.

I have started to become comfortable with Linux. I am not proficient by any means but I am convinced that Linux is in my future for the desktop that I do most of my writing on. Once support runs out for Windows 10, I will be converting that computer to Ubuntu. I am a light PC user anyway, browser based work, word processing and spreadsheets are the primary stuff I do. The more familiar I am with Linux, the easier the transition will be for me.

Its funny, the more connected our devices have become, the more isolated they are. In the old days, I would start a file at home, email it to myself and continue to work. Or even better, I put it on a thumb drive. I haven’t done anything like that in years because I can’t really share anything between environments anymore for security purposes. My biggest outstanding concern is that I have been using, saving and storing everything in Microsoft 365. This seems like a topic for another day however.

As it turns out, UEFI is important to me and without it working properly, I can do nothing. The good news is that I got my SSD today and I already have Ubuntu installed along with everything except the Software Defined Radio and SDR++. Starting from scratch, I got an updated UEFI driver and everything works like it was supposed to.

The computer geeks out that probably find this to be a little juvenile. I had no idea what this driver was supposed to do. Reading the release notes there were vulnerabilities to certain viruses. Hindsight being 20/20, Ubuntu recommends the risk as low and to not worry about it. There are some commands to ignore the device check that I read after the fact. I wish I would have read that before I messed up everything but in the end this is going to be better.

End Your Programming Routine: I have heard that the reason little kids learn so fast is that they have no fear. They just push keys and try things because they can. I have a streak like that with Linux, I don’t know what I don’t know and definitely what I am doing. That being said, be careful. I had no data or anything really on this computer so it was $30, a re-install and two hours for me and the end result is a better computer. I guess I am learning like a child but I will be more cautious in the future.

February 15, 2024 – Along the Lines of Yesterday

February 15, 2024 /

Yesterday I talked about waffling about whether I should invest in a garden space and things like fruit trees and bushes if I am planning on moving. The same is true with all home projects. The wisdom in the space is to be careful about changes that are made so that you don’t overspend compared to value of the house.

This project that I have been picking away at is not one of them. I cannot say how much improvement there is in my basement by tucking ducts up into the floor joists. It hardly costs any money and it make the space so much more open and accessible. I used to have to duck under two ducts each time I entered and left my office. That has all changed.

Not only is it easier to get to my office, having the duct tucked up in the ceiling allows more light over the whole space. There are two windows in the basement, more natural light is coming in as well as the electrical fixtures. Because the ducts were hanging down, they were constantly in the way of moving decorations and other storage items around. All of that is going away with each duct I move.

I won’t be able to do all of them because they don’t all run parallel with the floor joists. But, doing the major pathways has paid major dividends on the usability of the space. It looks better too, not just an after thought or the laziest installation possible.

To date, I have spent about $100 on materials. I have never worked with duct work before since this is typically a one and done type job. That being said, I am kind of liking it. I ended up buying a crimping tool so I can make my own custom lengths or rigid pipe. The truth is that the original installers taped the flex duct to the rigid fixtures and over time, that tape has failed. I have already had to fiddle with trying to re-attach ductwork that is in my way over the years.

This is one of those projects that fits into the do it regardless of how it effects value. In my opinion, there is no way that it could hurt and it is so little initial outlay of time and money, I should have done this years ago (it should have been done this way originally). So, I will pick away at it a couple hours at a time until I have done what I can do.

End Your Programming Routine: If it was simple, I would be done already. I have to delicately pick my way through different things like re-enforcing structure or wires in the way that have to be reconfigured etc. But, I am doing this purposefully and carefully and each one of those things adds a little dimension to the puzzle without having heat all day. It is a new kind of challenge.

January 24, 2024 – It Is That Time of Year Again

January 24, 2024 /

it is not just the holidays, but the following months has it’s own dread. Because I am a little lazy, all of our bill statements tend to pile up over the year. However, it is this time of year that I choose to file, organize and shred. I do this because it is the beginning of preparation for tax season.

I am certainly not making excuses, I should do it more than once a year. One of the biggest reasons is that filing is inconvenient. Statements, receipts, etc. go into a drawer after they are dealt with. When the drawer is filled, the stack goes upstairs to a pile. That pile grows unchecked until this time of year.

When I sort, I group everything by debtor. Things that are one and done like invoices go directly to the shred pile if significant time has passed and there is no warranty. Each individual stack is organized oldest to newest so that it can be placed into the file and automatically be in order year over year.

Trust me, my recent tax filings have been no picnic. Owing over $10,000 a few years ago was not only a shock but also caused me to evaluate what and how I am doing things. Getting audited was trying for my spare time and my relationship. One of the things that I changed as a result of this was my use of a tax professional. I used to do all of my own returns but that caused so much strife between my marriage that I have finally resigned to pay someone.

Maybe you have never done your own taxes. Or maybe you have never paid for them to be done. Well, there is a dirty little secret if pay someone to do it and that is the majority of the work is gathering and organizing the data to prepare the tax returns. The truth is, preparers just plug in the data as provided. Their fee is for their time and the small amount of liability that they incur by doing so.

Now, my taxes aren’t exactly straight forward but they are not the most complicated. Over the years I have had rents and royalties, LLC and investment complications. So, I have to do things like gather all of my utility bills and sum them for the year so that I can calculate the percentage of the cost that the rental has on the overall bill for deduction purposes.

The simple truth is I have to do this work whether I do the taxes or I have someone else do them. It so happens that I am forced to get organized way earlier when I hand it off whereas I may drag my feet when I am doing it myself. As my filing goes, any bill that is not used in taxes gets evaluated as to how much folder space I have. It really serves no purpose to have five years of bills filed. But when the folder starts getting full, I start culling years past. Those papers all go to the shredding box.

Speaking of shredding, I also eliminate my eighth year of tax forms. This time of year is great because I can sit in front of the TV and shred while playoff football is on. It makes me feel like I can afford to spend the time watching while doing something useful at the same time.

Be prepared, it is amazing the volume of paper after shredding compared to before. It is not clear to me whether I can put it in the recycling bin or not. Sometimes I do but when they dump the bin, there is often a snowstorm of paper bits on the ground. I think the recyclers don’t like it because for that fact.

End Your Programming Routine: Part of why I dread this is it is a big job. It makes things much easier when everything has a place and it is in it. If you are not a consistent organizer, I highly recommend doing it this time of year because it really pays dividends for those other required things in life, like taxes.

January 18, 2024 – Should Have Done This 15 Years Ago

January 18, 2024 /

I decided to take MLK day off. Everybody else in my house had it as a holiday and my account had it off too. I really I would be marking time in order to preserve some carry-over time off that I need to spend before April. I really needed the time off, I had been going three long weekends straight without much rest.

One of the projects that I have had on my agenda was to move the HVAC ducts into the floor joist bay. It was part of my space preparation for the wine cellar. But also, every since my I have built my office, it has become an unconscious limbo to get there. I can’t say how many times I have smacked into it because I wasn’t directly focused on where I was walking. Fortunately, it was a flexi-duct.

In total, I think the project took my son and me about five hours to complete. It was mostly spending time together and me teaching. I didn’t necessarily need the help. Without him, it may have taken me an hour or two more but it is something I need to do. The result is phenomenal, I can’t wait to do the next one.

To start out, I stapled the string that runs perpendicular to the joists. The string provides some additional support for the bats in the joist bay. I wanted to do this because I was going to cut the string on the bay that I was removing the insulation and after fifty years, some of the staples are a little dodgy.

Once the insulation was removed I was pleased to see that the joists were 2x10s. Since the entire floor has been done, I have never seen the framing before. This gave me the minimum amount of compression where the duct needed to run between the joist bay and cross beams.

There were a couple of things I didn’t expect. One was that the floor joist had some bridging. Only one of the two members was actually connected. Had I known it was there, I would have only removed insulation to that point and used that to place to begin the decent to the trunk duct. It is something to watch for when I do the next one. I don’t want to be removing a bunch of structural members because it makes my project look better. But since only one has been connected for the last fifty years, I figure the decision was already made and I used the pieces to block the bottom of the joist and provide some additional support.

The second thing I didn’t expect is that I was going to run the duct through the joist space into the future wine cellar space. I didn’t realize that the joists were terminated and that there was a rim joist. I couldn’t exactly cut a 10″ hole in a 2×10 so that meant that I had to re-route the duct through the wall. It is not where I wanted it but I will take solace that it no longer runs through the door way where it has been the entire time I have lived here.

My exploratory work has told me that my initial plan for the wine cellar will have to be modified. I have some structural members that I did not anticipate but that is OK because I can’t be happier with the results of this work. I will figure it out later, when I get there.

End Your Programming Routine: When you do things like this, you wonder why you have lived with them for so long. I spent $50 in materials, some of it I didn’t use but bought because it was icy and I didn’t want to make another trip tot the hardware store. Plus, I have more ducts to do, having some options make sense. Not only does it look better and the space more usable but the feeble lighting does a better job illuminating too.

January 11, 2024 – Snow Is a Comin’, Are You Ready?

January 11, 2024 /

Every part of the country has some weather. Even places where it snows, sometimes they get so much that it cant be handled. I worked with a guy from North Dakota who said that they kept an emergency kit at awork. If it was too windy, then they were not able to leave the plant due to visibility of the roads. Everyone would have to stay put until it was possible to get replacements.

That meant they kept some cold weather gear, a pantry and some bedding. We are expecting about eight inches of snow tomorrow with temperatures that will remain below freezing all day for several days. Thanks to the foresight of our ultra woke government pushing climate change agenda, they have not collected enough gas tax revenue to fund only the necessary road maintenance. This means plowing the highways that are east-west corridors.

What I am saying is expect an ice rink on the roads for a few days. That means the smart money is preparing now, while there is still time. It is not forever, just a couple of days. But, that is the point. If it is going to be a zombie apocalypse, then there is nothing to be done but accept the fate. But, as long as a couple of days we might as well limit the interruptions.

So, what does that look like? I think that you are smart enough to figure it out but nevertheless, I am going to put out some reminders.

  1. Have a menu planned for the duration of the event. Purchase things to fulfill that
  2. Pickup prescriptions early if you can or at least ensure that you have enough to span the event.
  3. Instead of snow it could be ice and with ice comes potentially larger problems like power outages. Sometimes for weeks. It is a great time for fuel for heaters and generators.
  4. If you have generators and fuel make sure your extension cords are in good repair, you have enough and can reach what you would like to power.

If you must travel, make sure your vehicle is prepared. It is possible to drive in the snow and ice. I personally have snow chains just in case. People that often drive in this weather like snow tires because they are a large improvement over regular tires and not near the hassle of chains. That being said, the tire shop will be a mad house, budget hours more than normal. Speaking of vehicles, here are some more things to consider.

  1. A weak battery is a huge liability. If you have been struggling with one, expect the worst.
  2. I have an ice scraper in the car. I use it from time to time here. The best ones for snow combine scraper with a snow brush.
  3. I am assuming that I am talking with infrequent winter travelers. Other vehicle preparations are many but it having a tow strap, shovel, traction media, flares and the capability to leave the vehicle if the situation warrants. This goes without saying that other winter preparations like antifreeze, etc

The decision to leave or stay with the vehicle is complicated. Generally speaking it is better to stay with it unless you know where you are going and it can be safely and successfully navigated. Walking home because your car is in a ditch, walking home out of the woods for days is not a good plan.

Careful for slips and falls. I have a shovel to clear paths and a bucket of salt at the ready. Speaking of the outside, be mindful of pet’s water freezing or anything else for that matter. For goodness sake, disconnect your garden hoses from the source. I have frozen pipes twice because of that.

I also need to be mindful of my sump pump. The outlet will freeze causing the pump to deadhead. That needs to be unplugged until the temperatures go above freezing. Be ready for the thaw because all of that formerly frozen water is coming but if the pipe is not clear, here comes the flooding. This requires thinking on your feet when this happens. So, the freeze is one thing but preparing and handling the thaw is another.

End Your Programming Routine: Hopefully, this is just a sledding opportunity and a some cabin time. But if not, then it never hurts to have situational awareness and the ability to do something about it before that decision is made for us. And maybe if you are not already into preparedness, this is a small taste to a better life.

October 18, 2023 – Origins of Technical Gear

October 18, 2023 /

We all know the brand names like North Face, Columbia and Patagonia. Today, they are as much a fashion brand as they are/were technical gear manufacturers. But, what is the origin of those brands? They started out as somebody trying to do something better. And when I say somebody, I really mean a person making or modifying a piece of gear to suit their needs. When I was on my hunting trip, I saw this sleeping bag that my dad was using and it triggered me to memories from the late 1970s.

I don’t think that it is a secret that I grew up in a family of traditional values. That also include stereotypical roles and interest as well. My mom was a sewer, she still dabbles a little today but nothing like back then. Somewhere, somehow she ran across this company called Frostline. The premise was that a consumer could purchase a kit and sew their own technical gear.

I was pretty young, but I remember taking a trip to Spokane to pick up this kit. Spokane was about eight hours away. I am pretty sure my dad was working there as well. We picked up a pair of cowboy boots that he had made out of elk hide and went to the Frostline store. We also went and saw where he traditionally elk hunts along the way. It was a long, three day weekend of driving basically.

Frostline offered kits to make sleeping bags, tents, parkas and other things. This was the days where the transition was being made for wool and canvas to nylon and Gore-Tex. This sleeping bag wasn’t the only thing my mom made. She made rain gear for my dad, vests (I still have mine, but my 2nd grade me quickly outgrew it) and sleeping pads that I used my entire youth in Boy Scouts.

By today’s standards the gear was heavy and maybe even sub-standard in performance. It was however revolutionary for the time. Obviously, it was good enough to still be around today. I was surprised at how many recent articles were around praising the kits. I think it is pretty niche subject but there was certainly staying power in people’s minds.

There are two primary motivators to make your own gear. One would be to save money and the other would be to have something unique or custom. Of course, our side of the fence was to save money. But, the truth is some of this stuff was stuff I had never seen. We had one sporting goods store in town and this was my first synthetic, mummy bag.

That’s not to say that if we lived in Jackson Hole or Vail or some other outdoor oriented town that type of stuff wouldn’t be so unique but I think that this was a way to get stuff that really wasn’t on the market. You have realize that before the internet, if you didn’t know something existed and where to get it, it wasn’t exactly easy to find.

Today, I am not sure people would put that much effort into building their own gear. $150 might seem like a lot of money to pay for a sleeping bag, but the truth is by the time you put 20 – 30 hours into it, it doesn’t seem that insane to pay that amount of money.

There are definitely parts of me that wishes this company was still around. I think that it would be cool to go on a trip with a backpack that you have made. I still occasionally noodle the idea of what it would cost to build my own gear brand since I can never find exactly what I want. Like, I want a backpack that holds my laptop, fits under the airplane seat, has a sunglasses pouch and holds a water bottle with full access to the bag interior and not a lot of extra pockets and zippers that add bulk, cost and little functionality.

My current bag has most of that, it doesn’t fit under the seat well and it has tot many small pockets. It seems like the more pockets you can claim, the more the price goes up but the less value that they have. All of those protrusions and separations diminish the overall capacity of the bag itself and then it turns out you can add much less stuff then the size would indicate. I have other thoughts on other items like range bags and such, but that’s a topic for another day.

End Your Programming Routine: This is a little known piece of Americana that I thought would be fun to share. It is neat that it is still getting used today. This country was built by people wanting to build the better mousetrap and this is one example. Why do you think I have a sewing machine in the first place? It gives me ability to do some of my own modifications if I ever spend the time to figure out how it works.