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September 16, 2020 – Island living

September 16, 2020 /

As I mentioned yesterday, we took a trip to Washington. I think that my wife and family have visited five or six times in the last five years. We have been to Victoria BC, the San Juan Islands and Whidbey Island.

If it were up to my wife, she would like to live on the coast. For me, I would prefer not to. Our coast is gray, windy, wet and rugged. I am OK for a weekend, but that climate is really harsh on things (and people). The Puget Sound offers some of the benefits without the drawbacks.

Let’s face it, it is still coastal Washington. So, it will be gray and temperate. What seems to be missing are the winds and waves of our coast. For instance, I would not hesitate to put a kayak into the water whereas here I can hardly imagine a protected enough environment. I guess what I am saying is that the opportunity to get into the water has a lower barrier of entry. Less serious boats can take advantage of the access to the water.

What does island living look like? I would say things are more expensive and you need to be able to wait, take things slower and prepared to do without. Because everything is imported, ferries and boats are critical to a normal infrastructure. Some commutes are doable on a ferry like Whidbey Island to Everett is only 15 minutes, but it takes thirty. Maybe Coupeville to Port Townsend is thirty five minutes. Many of the other ferries are quite a bit longer in total duration, so not really realistic for typical commuting.

I am speculating here, but I imagine town living is kind of like village living. These are small and tight knit communities of locals that are used to lots of out of towners but I imagine that breaking into the circle could be difficult. They are of course reliant on tourism for income, but guarded in true acceptance. Everywhere I have visited over the years have well apportioned amenities, from a grocery standpoint but it comes at a cost like $5/gallon of milk.

Property can be awfully expensive as any coastal town. Many price tags I saw were over the million dollar range, including on the main land too. I haven’t looked too hard, but I imagine the farther you get from services like ferries and water access there are probably some more reasonable prices. That really isn’t too much different than desirable areas in our area.

One of our favorite things to do is get on the island and just drive around and imaging what life would be like if you lived there. We did the same thing on the Hawaiian islands as well. You can get some really incredible views and serenity without being on the beach. Looking for Orcas and other sea life, watching for boats including Navy ships and enjoying the dynamic weather changes are some of the other benefits of island life.

The politics of Washington and the surrounding area are very much in line with the rest of the west coast. There is civil unrest in the cities and a much more conservative outlook when you get out of the population zones. I will say that I have not seen as much political signage as I did on Whidbey Island. Unfortunately, I was driving so I didn’t take a good representative picture but suffice to say they were everywhere.

There are a few places that seem like a good compromise between what my wife and I would like. This area seems like it would be one of them. I could see a life taking advantage of the water. Who knows, maybe a job could be found in the future?

September 15, 2020 – What does bear meat taste like?

September 15, 2020 /

We just got back from an smoke escape to Washington. The air quality was quite a bit better, still not great. It was a good excuse to visit my sister and her family which we only see a couple times a year because of distance.

Before all of this wildfire madness began, my neighbors game me a little bear to try. It was my first time that I can remember. So, I wanted to cook it in a way that I could taste it, without a lot of sauce or covering spice. Steven Rinella has been said that pioneers moving west would eat deer and elk because they were plentiful, but they really preferred bear.

One other thing to note, bear is a carrier of trichinosis, the same parasite the can strike in undercooked pork. I don’t know how prevalent it is, but I do think that it is something you don’t want to have. Make sure that your meat is cooked to at least 150 deg F or more to eliminate the risk.

I decided to make some buttermilk biscuits, use up some left over gravy, fry up the bear meat with salt and pepper and some fried apples for breakfast. Even though I put the gravy on the biscuits, I put the meat to the side as to keep it separate.

My best description is that it tastes like part beef, part pork. There is an irony tint like you get from liver, but it was very faint and mild. No where near what liver is like. These cuts seemed to be a bit tougher, I am not sure what part of the animal they were, but I would liken them to tri-tip or sirloin in consistency.

I thanked my neighbor and told them about my experience. He gave me a pound of ground bear and ground venison as a result. I want to save that for something special.

September 11, 2020 – Staying productive in the midst of a new tragedy

September 11, 2020 /

Of course this is a day seared into my memory. For me, it was a different time on a different side of the country. My most vivid memories of that day were the photos of people that jumped off of the World Trade Center rather than risk getting burned (or as it turns out, lost to the collapse of the building). It also kind of makes me sick that this has turned into nineteen years of never ending and never winnable war. Isn’t that the very thing that caused the attacks in the first place?

Despite how tragic that was, there are many around that are engulfed in a new September tragedy. My own brother’s town has been evacuated and is in grave danger of burning. Speaking with him yesterday, he is planning for total loss. Literally no information is coming out of the area at this time as what appears to be the worst wildfires in Oregon’s recorded history.

I am safe, but the smoke is at the toxic level.

Being that this is harvest time, it is the absolute worst time to be picking crops or do anything outside. I guess that the silver lining is that since staying indoors is the safest option, preserving is a no brainer activity to pass the time with the radio (and TV) on monitoring the situation. I donned my N95 mask to harvest what little I had to get started this season.

For me, I don’t plant cherry tomatoes anymore. I find the return on investment of time and space to be lacking. But, they have a mind of their own and if they grow without my input, I let them. This year I had some volunteer plants.

The question in my mind is what to do with these types of tomatoes. There is only so many salads you are going to eat. I have made tomato pie before, it is not a wild hit at my house. I think the best use for them is to dehydrate them. I will cut the green off and slice them in half and dehydrate them for twelve hours or so. I usually store them in the freezer and then they can be added to salad over the year or added to pesto type sauce.

I previously mentioned my dad’s garden. He gave me eight giant beets. This is another plant that gets lukewarm reception at my house. When I have grown them, the kids will eat one slice of a beet (by force). My wife will eat one serving and I eat them for days. We usually have a jar of pickled beets in the refrigerator, although I don’t think that they are very good, so I decided to make my own.

This is a Ball recipe that I have not tried. It seems like a bread and butter type recipe with mustard seed, cinnamon, allspice and clove. I made a double recipe because it used all the beets so we should have pickles for at least a year to come and likely more than that.

I have apples on the tree that need to be picked. They are destined for applesauce as we usually eat 6-12 quarts a year. That is going to require more time outside, so I am holding off for the moment. I also have a big bag of jalapenos I bought at the farmers market with the intent of canning as well. We eat the heck out of those over the year too.

I like preserving and welcome the manual labor of the situation. I usually listen to podcasts of football games but not this year. It is news all the way.

September 10, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

September 10, 2020 /

We are in day four of the wildfire effects. Many small communities have been effected, including some completely burned to the ground. Fortunately, the weather is trending in our favor at this point, we are still safe and in no imminent threat, but that can change at any moment.

For today, I thought that I would talk about communication devices. It seems like the amount of intelligence is very limited at this point. It feels like unless you are in the line of fire, we are only getting evacuation information. To their credit, emergency officials have stated priority one is human safety followed by structure protection followed distantly by fire containment.

The number one device for information is the cell phone. Sheriffs and fire districts are putting out information over official Facebook pages and Twitter alerts. There is a reverse 911 system that is in place if you are signed up for alerts. Of course, we are getting hearsay information from people on or near the scene on various social media platforms. Don’t forget the voice and text functions for communicating with people that are in or near the scene. Keep it charged, have battery banks and cords available for your number one tool.

My number two tool is the AM radio. Local talk or news only stations have updates on the hour. They are also plugged into the Emergency Broadcast System for localize and targeted information. In fact, I just bought a new C. Crane radio yesterday as I have battled poor reception in my smaller ’emergency’ radio for years. I will probably review it later as I get some hours on it.

If you bug out, it is likely that you are going to take as many vehicles as you have drivers. Maybe the power is out, maybe the cell towers are down or maybe there is no reception in the area, two way communication can be helpful and comes in many forms.

  • CB (Citizens Band) radio – This type of radio has pretty good distance depending on your antenna setup and (in my experience) is primarily used in rural communication settings like logging.
  • FRS (Family Radio Service), GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service), MURS (Multi-Use Radio Service) – These are all small handheld walkie-talkie type radio devices. I have several types and despite what the package says, they have very short broadcast distance. Sometimes they have trouble communicating vehicle to vehicle in a caravan situation. I use mine primarily for household communication (like when you are shutting off breakers).
  • Short Wave – This can be a very powerful radio that can communicate around the world. There is quite a bit of knowledge that goes along with operating this device legally and effectively, but be aware.

Operating some of these devices require a license from the FCC, including FRS/GMRS type radios (depending on the frequency). I am not aware of anyone ever getting in trouble for not having a license, but the intent is to have an educated user and not clogging up the airwaves with non-sense.

Another tool that is a good source of local intel is the scanner. This is not something that I have, but my next-door neighbor does. Since, I live on Main Street, I see or hear probably half of the calls drive by. I usually can go talk to my neighbor to find out what the call is about. You can also judge the severity by the number and types of vehicles that pass by.

I have multiple tools running at the same time. Different perspectives provide different levels of information. Stay safe.

September 9, 2020 – Review: HingeMate 350

September 9, 2020 /

I have been saving this one for a while. I have been waiting for a day where I needed a topic quickly, today isn’t that day but I have been sitting on this for over a month. I am going to discuss the finer points of the HingeMate 350 today.

What is the HingeMate anyway? It is a template set that is used to create mortises for doors and hinges. It has pretty much everything you need to do that job, except the router. I purchased it at Lowes for $38.50.

There are plastic templates for the router to use from 2 1/2″ to 4 1/2″ hinges. It can accommodate three different styles of hinges in those widths, 5/8″ radius, 1/4″ radius and square. In addition, you can also mortise strike plate mortises as well as lock plate mortises.

This was a job that was traditionally done with a mallet and chisel. And it can be done, it is not too hard. But it is tedious and takes quite a while (at least for me). I recently replaced doors on my project after spending hours truing up the frame and opening, so I wasn’t too excited about ripping out the frame along with the finished trim, I thought that I would give this a try.

When would you replace a door only? I would say that if you are happy with the swing operation and the trim detail, it is a perfect scenario to only replace the door. The trick is that this is kind of a precise operation, hinge placements need to be exact in order for the door to work. It is easiest to transfer measurements from the old door to the new door for the best results.

The way that this product works is that you select the template that you want to use and place it in the template holder. The template holder is adjusted for the door thickness and placed in the precise spot that you want to work on the door. The whole apparatus is screwed to the door. The bit is put into the router (not included) and then you adjust the depth of cut for the hinge thickness.

Rout the hinge mortise, remove the template and test hinge fit. If you are satisfied, drill the holes for the hinge screws and mount the hinge. Here is a tip, for best door operation, the top of the hinge face should be completely flush to the door edge, not proud and not inset. Otherwise you get into all kinds of binding and geometry problems.

How did it work? Well, it worked perfectly on my first door. It fit on the first test. My second door I had to make modifications to the door in order to make it fit, but I dont believe that it was a problem with the HingeMate but rather the opening was still a half an inch out of plumb.

So, what is the verdict for the HingeMate?

AdvantagesDisadvantages
Value4/5You cant argue with the price. The professional Porter-Cable version is over $250You need to supply your own router. That is another $100 if you do not already own a 1/4″ collet router
I bought this to cut hours of chiseling, I felt that I could do an entire door in the time it would take to do one hinge by hand.If you are only cutting one hinge size (or hinges only) you get a lot of extra pieces that aren’t necessary
Would like to have a storage case for all the parts. You have to cut the packaging open to get them out and there are a lot of loose parts around.
Quality3/5Followed the included instructions and got acceptable results. No flex, no wanderI noticed that the compression fit of the templates tended to loosen with repeated installation into the fixture. I fear over time, the fit would become too loose. That is not substantiated at this time
It was fairly persnickety to accurately place the fixture, the marks are not very precise and required a lot of verification measurements.
Performance3/5Hinges fit tight and flush. I was very happy with the mortises and the speed of the job.The precision of this jig depends on how good you are at measuring and setup. 1/8″ will be extremely difficult to set the door (or repair). I measured four times before cutting.
The only real thing I didn’t like was the screw holes that remained after the fixture was removed. Those had to be filled. It is a cheap and effective way of holding the fixture in place.
The trim router that I used was too small for the template and wanted to fall through in the middle of the cut so I had to freehand. Use a full sized router or an extended base plate to eliminate this problem.

The bottom line is that price for performance is there. I wonder about the durability of this product, but for me I am don’t really see using it much more. Again, my main motivator was saving time on installing the new doors, check that box. If you have a need, I can recommend this product. If you are a finish carpenter, go for the Porter-Cable.

September 8, 2020 – Survived the Apocalypse, Now the Nuclear Winter

September 8, 2020 /

It’s late today. Without getting into too much irrelevant detail, we are currently surrounded by wildfires.

Growing up in the west, fire is an annual event. The mountainous and forested areas are the places that most frequently affected. Lighting and fuel combined with low population density are a common recipe for the big western fires. Typically the area of the state that I live in is a greener and wetter climate. But, when the coast is on fire, you know that there is trouble.

As my wife and I were enjoying a Labor Day drive, I got a reverse 911 call warning of high winds (known as red flag winds). In about two hours the smoke stared blowing in from fires in the central part of the state. Overnight, too many fires to mention kicked up and started burning out of control.

6:45AM, 7:15AM, 8:30AM, 12:30PM, 4:00PM

From what I have seen, the municipal services have done a pretty good job of jumping into action and keeping us to date. It’s no joke, towns have burned and my brother evacuated earlier today. I think that I am in a good position, but I wanted to talk about more concrete actions you can take.

First of all, have a plan. A plan is a place to go and a route to take that is going to be safe. If your party is going to separate, discuss alternate routes to arrive at your destination safely.

Be prepared for evacuation. I would recommend that you gather important documents, medications, glasses, mobile chargers and communication devices and essential non-replaceable items. Pack a bag for extended time away from home. Include items for pets as well like food, bowls, carriers, etc. Make sure your vehicle is fueled and serviceable.

It might be too late, but here are some of the things that are helpful to protect your home. Keep brush and vegetation away from structures. If possible, keep landscaping watered. It has sometimes been beneficial to wet structures with sprinklers or hoses. Native plants tend to fair better to fire either resisting or recovering.

There is too much information to summarize tonight, I will provide some information that I am aware of.

Don’t panic, this will pass.

September 3, 2020 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

September 3, 2020 /

I finally got back to the range yesterday. It was the first time that I have been back since early March. The range was closed into May, so it wasn’t total negligence that I didn’t go. My dad asked me to take him in April and I said that when I got through with my project, that would be the time. Well, here we are finally.

October and hunting season is going to be here in a few weeks. The range tends to get really busy in September, so ideally we would have gotten this done two months ago. But this is the time I have, so let’s get this done. I took my dad, uncle and son and spent the better part of the day getting hunting rifles ready for the season.

We had all kinds of maladies to deal with. New shooters, new scopes, unfired rifles caused a long session to get to the results we were looking for. I am going to talk about my process in getting a rifle sighted in.

  1. Determine the load and the likely shooting distance for hunting. Changing those variable after sighting in the rifle requires another verification session.
  2. Bore Sight the scope – I use a laser that is inserted into the barrel. I initially adjust the scope so the crosshairs are centered at a height that is equal to the measurement of center of bore to center of scope.
  3. Shoot at the fifty yard target three times to verify bullet grouping is consistent. If not consistent, verify mounts are solid, ammunition is the same, bullets are the same weight. If consistent, then make adjustments according to scope manufacture to try at 100 yards
  4. Shoot at the 100 yards target three times and repeat the same evaluation as above, including distance.

Now, this is not the most efficient way of doing this. I am not going to go through all the variations and ins and outs of sighting in this post. What I do believe is that a lot of hunters do not spend a lot trigger time. That includes working the action, safety and magazine manipulation as examples. So, firing some extra rounds helps build some of that muscle memory and familiarity.

We had fun. My son was hitting the 200 yard gong consistently. We got our rifles shooting where we wanted. It was one of those waning days of summer, warm and breezy and there were only two other groups of shooters to share the range. I can’t wait until October.

September 2, 2020 – Lessons learned on the Victory Garden

September 2, 2020 /

I believe in transparency, especially in a forum such as this. Not everything can be bang on successful. Not only that, I believe in mistakes are our teachers. In the software industry we used to call project wrap up ‘lesson’s learned’ or using a fancier term ‘plus delta’.

So, look at the picture closely. The first thing you probably see is my dog digging a hole in the bed. Then you might see the bathroom addition that I just finished. Right next to the bathroom, there is a big pile of dirt (it is actually two piles, but the contrast in the picture is not clear).

What kind of plants did I end up with? Good question, I am still not totally sure because my kids planted the seeds in the tray. One of the tray’s was labelled ‘Rainbow’ which they explained to me was all of the leftover seeds mixed into one tray. I noticed that the cabbage tray was growing tomatoes, no peppers actually sprouted. From what I can tell, I ended up with two tomato plants and what I think are two brussel sprout plants.

There are two volunteer tomato plants that I let grow and they are the only thing that is currently producing. The brussel sprouts may have enough time to produce. I don’t think the proper tomato plants will yield anything because it is getting too late in the season. I had some volunteer dill come up as well. This is not exactly the bounty of a Victory Garden.

It is going to be pretty easy to talk about the things that didn’t go well, so let us start with what did.

  • I got seeds started and sprouted
  • I kept the seedlings alive from about mid-April until mid-June before I got them in the ground
  • Most of what got planted is still alive and if the weather holds out, may still produce
  • I got my kids involved in the process

That is pretty much the positives, now for some constructive analysis

  • I went from three beds to one, cutting the opportunity for productivity significantly
  • Because my construction project dominated my life for months, the plants stayed in the trays six weeks too long reducing their vigor and potential for yield
  • I needed to pay more attention to my kids technique when initially planting the seeds
  • The bed location is getting less full sun exposure each year. This year particularly also had construction debris all around, materials dragged over the plants and in general in the way of everything.
  • Some of my seeds are getting long in the tooth. In the past, I was able to get seeds from the library for free and I got kind caught flat footed with COVID and all of the shut downs, including the library

Despite my many issues, and what I consider a nearly wasted effort, I revealed my plans to come back stronger and better. I suppose the good news is that this effort cost nearly nothing. I spent a few dollars to retrofit my irrigation manifold so I could have all soaker lines in the bed.

The other good news is that my dad grows a giant garden and we got broccoli, cucumbers, corn, beets and swiss chard. Sometimes it is better to know a gardener than to be one.

September 1, 2020 – The results of ‘Participation Trophy’ culture

September 1, 2020 /

I was actually in the midst of writing about another topic this morning. I attempted to leave and go to a local bakery to get some bread to have with our bruschetta that we are having for dinner tonight. I am sure that I was already in a bad mood because I had to stop writing, wait for the train to pass, then find out the bread is not ready until later. Then, I drive past this sign and I got triggered.

I must be old fashioned, because I my youth you had to do something extraordinary in order to get labelled a hero. We are talking not just life saving, but life risking as well. Additionally, it was something that not everyone would or could do. I’m sorry but I don’t think working at the post office counts. I know that they are having some issues and I appreciate the relative consistency of delivery, but heros?

The word hero is cheaply thrown around a lot; teachers, doctors, nurses, emergency service, soldier, on and on. Maybe I should just move on and accept that society has changed the definition and cheapened the word. But I cant, a hero was something that was more than appreciation, it was something that you aspired to be and circumstantially the label was applied. A hero reluctantly (or never) accepted the title, a majority people felt that action was substantially above the call of duty or mission.

When I was a kid, there was a ‘war hero’ in your town or my dad could take your dad (not saying those are right, just saying how the use has changed). This culture has turned the notion of hero into someone that gets paid to pursue their career. I don’t know about you, but I can remember the time that all fifty plus Christmas cards were returned because they were irregularly shaped and required extra postage despite the fact that I paid for the postage in the lobby.

I get that things change and idealism fades, but the people that choose certain careers because they had a passion for helping people, or they thought it had good pay and reasonable benefits. Circumstances change and when times get tough or things are not as they seem we now think an unwarranted label is an appropriate motivator.

State worship is high and the brainwashing is nearly complete when we bestow our highest values to imperialism, advancing propaganda and enforcing total law and order. We claim to embrace and appreciate freedom of speech and ideals and we actually do the opposite. We use our praise to enforce status quo and marginalize differences that are too outside our comfort zones.

I know that I am coming out firing both barrels today, so I want to change my tone to finish. I was talking with my mom not too long ago and she was telling me about the time that she baked the garbage man some cookies because he picked up some extra stuff in the back of the house rather than just emptying the cans. Years later, he still remembered the gesture. I can also remember leaving treats in the mailbox too every now and again. Those seem like appropriate tokens of respect and appreciation.

It’s not like marriage, so stopping a bit before love, honor and cherish is appropriate. Love your fellow man, be courteous and respectful, show appreciation, say ‘Thank You’, treat others as you would want to be treated are all actions that are in line with respecting other people. I am proposing to guard the title and reserve the act of bestowing hero to situations warranted.

August 31, 2020 – Have you ever been audited by the IRS?

August 31, 2020 /

Anybody…? Well, I can tell you from personal experience that it is not fun. I probably didn’t need another issue to deal with right now. Fortunately, I am fairly well organized, understand the risks and rules for the most part and it is still a pain in the butt. Not to mention that the attorney costs $250/hour.

In this age of electronic statements, sometimes it is not even possible obtain information. I have statements that went to my previous work e-mail that do not exist anymore. With rollovers and closed accounts I no longer have information that is being requested.

I will spare all of the analysis and insights of the weekly message. If you are interested, you can watch the link yourself. However, the thrust of the message is “what in your life needs to be reborn?”

Looking at things, I think you could say that many of my former peers might say that that I need to rebuild my life. But in this context, you might say that my life is being reborn. A rebuilt life would be moving into a similar job in a related field. It would also be working seven days a week if necessary and being available 24 hours a day. It would be prioritizing a customers/clients desires over my family. It would be taking phone calls during my kids Christmas concerts and having meetings on Christmas Day.

I am not totally against all of that, I am just against it for me now. Everyone needs to hustle, make a name for themselves and learn what they like and are capable of. Everyone needs to push lines until they realize that they are on the wrong side or went too far.

I am at the point where I have learned many of those lessons. I am also trying something new, letting go of control and the safe choices that went along with those choices. That is really scary, but I think that it is a lesson in faith for me. I don’t really want to retire from life, I just want to do something that is less demanding of my attention and loyalties.

I hope that there is something moving me to a stronger and healthier direction. This audit will pass, this season will pass. With the benefit of hindsight, it will be much clearer what is happing.