Shattered Fence, Fallen Tree - 23 November 2021

This is actually an experiment to see if I can embed movies in a post.  It does show the fallen tree that broke the new fence in the windstorm around Halloween 2021.

<pause>

Well, it did some sort of upload, but there is no image here. 

Next experiment - upload to YouTube and link to there.

The video is here: https://youtu.be/423yL75Lkp0

It seems one must click and follow - the video is not embedded.

Oh, look - there is one button to upload images and one to upload videos.  Let us now pause to upload the video.

.

I am not looking at the final version, but the original portrait image has been truncated to landscape.  Not sure how Blogger determines this.

Excitement in the Backyard: Septic extension - 23 November 2021

This work was done a while ago, but I am documenting it today because I only just pulled the photos from the camera (phone?).

When the septic pumper was here, he pulled out the filter in the septic tank that protected the lines in the leach field.  He was very careful, warning me in advance, but the filter moreorless fell apart upon removal.  I think I noted that there were three plastic (nylon?) rods that heald together the individual stack plates of the filter.  The nuts holding these failed.  The guy offered to install a $500 replacement filter, but also described the repair process.  I went for the repair. I got three "all-thread" rods of stainless steel with six of those nylon locking nuts.  The idea is to replace the failed plastic rods with steel rods that will last.  

After I got back from the hardware store, I hosed down the filter in an effort to clean it.  I was mostly successful, but let us be real - there is no way to "clean" this thing.  I wore gloves to remove the failed rods and install the new ones.  I had put three of the locking nuts on the three rods in the kitchen (when everything was clean from the store).  That was a challenge because - no surprise - the locking nuts locked up.  As you might imagine, this foreshadows the trouble I was about to have in the backyard, assembling the repair for the filter.  I tried and tried, but could not get the bottom locking nuts on the rods, so I went back to my stash of nuts and bolts, grabbed four and used them.  I double-nutted one of the rods as a safety and then put the reluctant on the bottoms of the rods as best I could as a double-safety. 

In the photo, you see the repaired filter insert to the left, the receiving column inside the septic tank in the center, and the silo lid on the right.  For sanitary reasons, I used a loop of rope to lower the filter core back into the filter housing in the tank.  Once it was all settled, I put the lid back in place and screwed it closed.

For future reference:  the screws in the lid are Robertson, likely #2 or #3.  There are four at about the cardinal points. 

Working with Medicare and Social Security: Follow-up - 23 November 2021

I got back on the phone to Social Security Bellevue this morning and was on-hold for about 20 minutes.  I retraced my (verbal) steps of yesterday, and the woman on the phone confirmed that the delayed start of Part B into July 2022 seemed odd.  From what she can tell, all the paperwork is in-place to justify a "special start" now rather than the open-enrollment start in July.  The case is under review and she added a case note for the responsible individual.  She was very reluctant to provide a case number or contact, so I am "in line" somewhere.  When the review is complete, I will be issued a new card with new dates and be able to sign up when that happens.  Until then, she said there is nothing for me to do - Part A is automatic and in-force, and any enrollment in the other Parts, including Advantage, are gated on the new date.

Sigh.

Working with Medicare and Social Security - 22 November 2021

After filing the right paperwork, I received notice from the Social Security Administration that I was confirmed as eligible for Medicare.  Medicare Part A (hospital) started April 2021, Part D (prescriptions) started (no date - but "can enroll"), and Part B (medical/out-patient) starts July 2022.

July 2022.  Wait a minute.  Why so late when Parts A and D were active?

About noon, I called the number in the letter, the 1-800-MEDICARE number.  I was on-hold for a while and then spoke to a nice woman; I did not catch her name.  She was generally helpful, but the computers were down, so she could not check any specifics.  She advised that I call back later, when the computers were back up.  OK.

About 2pm, I called 1-800-MEDICARE again.  After a long time on-hold, I was able to speak with Wanda.  Wanda was rather the opposite of the first woman.  Wanda was not very helpful.  In summary, she said that I had called Medicare and needed to call Social Security.  She did not accept that the letter had me call Medicare - that was not going to be her problem.  As the computers were back up, I asked for my Medicare number.  She said I had to have a reason.  I told her that I had not received my card with the number and we were in the midst of the enrollment period, so I needed my number.  That seemed to satisfy her and she put me on-hold.  I eventually connected with Greg.  Greg was very helpful and gave me my number.  It took a while, but it worked.

About 2:30, I called Social Security at 1-800-772-1213.  I spent my time on-hold and was connected with Sarah.  She listened to my story and looked at the records.  To her assessment, I had been put in the general enrollment for Part B in July 2022 rather than special enrollment for new Part B people.  She said that I needed to call the Social Security Bellevue office.  I needed to ask them to put me in the special enrollment category.

About 3pm, immediately after I got off the line with Sarah, I called the Bellevue Social Security office at 1-866-574-2323.  I was on hold for about 28 minutes and SS-Bellevue dropped the call.

About 3:30pm, I called SS-Bellevue back.  I was on hold for about 25 minutes and I got a recording announcing that they could not connect me to an agent, advised me to call back again, and hung up.

The Bellevue office closes at 4pm.

So I spent literally hours on the phone to get nothing.  Well, OK, I finally have my Medicare number, but that was not the main purpose of the day.

I wil lbe back on the phone tomorrow at 9am to the Bellevue office to fix this.

Excitement in the Back Yard - 16 November 2021

Well... the excitement is papable.  I think that is a word.  Two big bits of excitement in the back yard, and maybe three bits if you count differently.

A tree fell down and broke our fence in a windstorm around 1 November.  I took some photos, but the weather has been so crappy that I only just got back there to do some clean-up.  It is (was) a sweetgum tree in our neighbor's yard that snapped off at about the six-foot level, and almost twenty feet of tree fell on the corner of our newly installed fencing.  Other names for the sweetgum are liquidambar and American storax.  Unfortunately, besides the cleanup, about three panels of the new fence are damaged.  

Under WA law, we are responsible for repairs - this is an agreement common among insurance companies.   Metropolitan just sold our policy (the whole business) to, I think, Farmers or maybe State Farm, so I have to find the new insurance information to make a claim.  In the mean time,  I went back to do some initial clean-up.  I am hoping that I might get a 4x4 board out of it, maybe 12 feet long.  Looks like nice wood, but we shall see.  I am concerned that an otherwise healthy-looking tree snapped, so the wood may be diseased or otherwise not useful.

Second bit of excitement - we had the septic tank pumped for the first time in about 5-7 years.  We are pretty careful with, uh, what we put into the tank, so seven years is about normal for us.  We had the silos put in (towers?) last time, thus no digging this time, just pumping.  When he went to clean the filter (between the septic tank and leading to the leach field), there was a bit of discovery.

The filter fell apart when he pulled it out.  Not surprising that 30-year-old plastic fails.  As I understand it, the filter is a stack of filter plates that are held in a column by three plastic rods and capped by three plastic nuts.  The filter serves to protect the leach field from solids in the tank (liquids only).  The plastic failed, probably the nuts but perhaps the threading on the rods.  Anyway, the operator got the filter out, but barely.  He offered a replacement at $500 but also told me how I could get some replacement rods to repair the filter for another decade or three.  I chose the latter option, but now I have to go to the hardware store, get the replacement bits, finish cleaning the filter, and replace the filter (inside the septic).  I am not entirely thrilled by this option, but I am less thrilled by the $500 option.

In the meantime, I have ripped the first seven seasons of MASH to the family media server and Handbrake has only crashed twice.  I am now completing seasons 8-11 and then the movie.  Then on to House, Seinfeld, and some miscellaneous DVD movies that I have not yet ripped.  I also have some French DVDs to rip, but they are a different Region (EUR rather than US), so I have to look into MakeMKV. 

COVID Booster Received - 11 November 2021

I did a lot of misccellaneous things yesterday, but the significant one was a trip to get my COVID vaccine booster.  The vaccine is quite available - if you qualify - but it is not easy to get.  Let me explain the three parts of that statement.  

There are several web sites that will allow you to find places that are dispensing the COVID vaccine boosters; I think Google even provided some tailored search results.  I knew I could get a booster at a pharmacy, so I did a search at the site for Bartell Drugs, a regional chain.  No problem, it is easy to find the appointment page, but they do not offer walk-in or same-day appointments and the appointments for the next couple of days were already booked.  Because of my travel to DC, I booked about a week out for 11 November.  

To qualify (as I write this), one needs to have special needs such as a compromised immune syste, working with senior citizens, etc., or be 65 years or older.  By now, the doses for kids 5-12 should be available, but that was still only a promise when I booked.

Finally, distribution of avaiable appointments is lumpy.  I would normally go to Bartell Drugs in Redmond, or in Bellevue, but I had to go to Factoria, about a 25-minute drive.  Not a big burden, but I was hoping for a 25-minute round-trip trather than an hour.  I know. #FirstWorldProblems 

Google Maps took me to the wrong "Bartell Drugs Factoria".  I asked for my destination verbally and Google Maps took me to a Bartell Drugs store in Bellevue so I had to redirect when I got to the wrong destination.  This would have been a real problem on mass transit, but I was driving, thus no big deal.

Once in the right place, I had arrived a bit early, so I wandered around after I checked-in.  I had no particular shopping list, so I looked for some general needs.  I was both surprised and not-surprised by the stocking problems.  I found everything I needed (looked for), but maybe not exactly what I was looking for.  Maybe I wanted gel-cap ibuprofen and they only had tablets or I wanted the 500mg and they only had the 200mg -- that kind of thing.  There were some sections that looked depleted but I did not make note of what they contained.  It is not like the shelves were bare, but some of the sections had gaps.

The pharmacist called me, I got my shot, and they gave me a bale of paperwork.  Totally free.  No questions about payment, costs, or insurance.  I could probably go back tomorrow for a fourth shot (I am not recommending that - I state it simply to suggest that suppies are ample).  I got a third Pfizer dose; I could have mixed it up with another version, but the pharmacist said that the general recommendation was to stay consistant, so I did.   My physical reaction was nil - nothing.

Next morning, there was a little bit of soreness at the injection site, but only when I poked at it. And now, 24 hours later, even that is barely noticeable.

As of 5-Nov, I received notice that I am registered in Medicare, and I await my number so that I can book an annual physical and get a flu shot.

 Kayak Construction, Day Six, completion - 31 October 2021

This is written on 4 November and the kayak is resting in the garage.  I am trying to get the Blogger layout commands to put the photo to the side of this text, but with severely limited joy so far.

Reconstructing, on Day Three, we had a separate deck (top) and hull (bottom) that fit, that had some edge glue to hold the panels together, and a lot of copper wires holding everything together.  Although the kayak has enough strength to be able to move the hull parts about, it must be done carefully.

On Day Four, we expanded the fiberglass work.  We used a thickened epoxy mix to fillet (two l's rather than one) the hull pieces.  This fillet is to fully set the deck and hull shapes that the prior tacking had begun, and the fillets give structural strength to the halves of the kayak.  To provide a continuous fillet, all the wires must be removed.  We are talking hundreds, probablly 200 or more.  There remain a handful in the bow and stern of the hull to retain the proper shape because there is notable twist and stress in the plywood.  Eventually, the few remaining wires will be clipped and sanded flush (fortunately, while copper is strong enough to hold the stresses, it is also soft enough to work with sandpaper).  To do the filleting, I clipped the wires at the deck-hull joint, laid the halves of the boat side-by-side with the (to be) interiors facing up, and clipped the remaining wires.  This gave easy access to the interior for stem-to-stern fillets.  I  prepared the filleting epoxy mixture and used the clipped end of a sandwich bag to apply long fillets that were then smoothed to a gentle curve.  The curves were pretty flat in the bottom and got sharper (smaller radii) toward the bow and stern.  I also applied fillets to the bulkheads, preparing them to be waterproof.  We left this to set for a bit and started taping the seams with 3-inch fiberglass to reinforce the strength of the joints.  We put extra layers of glass in the bow and stern, and then put a sealing coat of epoxy on the inside of the lower hull.  

To start Day Five, I glued one of the hatch fixtures in place.  This goes on the inside to hold the previously cut hatch covers aligned with the deck and to create a waterproof assembly.  I had to shape the hatchh assemblies to fit the slope of the deck at the sides; I also needed to adjust the fillets to seal the waterproof chambers.  I taped the underside of the deck seams and put a sealing coat on the bottom, then it looks like I glassed the underside of the deck and rejoined the halves.  Somewhere in the day, more sanding cleaned up the puzzle joints, removing the surface epoxy and leaving the joints.  Late in the day, I started work on the Kokopelli accents by the cockpit.  Inlay was not really possible due to the complex outline of the figures; to be honest, inlay is the way to go for simpler figures such as circles.  I put a stripe of epoxy on the deck to give the Kokopelli fitures something to stick to (yes, I also put epoxy on the underside of the Kokopelli figures).  Then I laid down a heavy coating of epoxy, taking care to fill in the figures as much as I could. 

This worked well.  The green tape that you see is simply holding the halves together.  Again.  

I came in on Day Six to cut the extra fiberglass from the remainder of the cockpit and hatch openings and trimmed up the edges. Today was challenging for a couple reasons.  I applied a top surface of fiberglass to the deck and later spread a fill-coat to smooth out the weave (make it less visible).  This will create a problem later in the day because of the curing delay in the cool, Autumn temps -- therefore the heater that you see in the photo.  I also filleted the joint between the hull and the deck.  Around the cockpit, I applied 3-inch tape and epoxy, then the rest of the seam got 1-inch tape and epoxy.  The 3-inch tape is very hard to handle when working in the limited access through the hatch holes, so the 1-inch tape was a welcome relief.  While I waited for the epoxy to cure, I helped apply glass and epoxy to the outside hull of several other boats.  Finally, at about 6pm, it was declared that the epoxy was ready for travel.

I already had a roof rack on the car, so I added some foam padding to protect the kayak.  We threw some straps over the top and padded them with old towels and plastic wrapped around the straps.  As a general rule, shiny plastic will not adhere to the epoxy, therefore the straps and towels were kept unglued to the car and straps.  We took the ferry home and arrived without incident.  Well, except for the deer that tried to cross the road as we were leaving Port Townsend - able to stop in plenty of time to avoid entanglement.  The canoe is now resting the garage and I am acquiring tools and materials to complete the work.

Kayak construction, Day Three - 27 October 2021

 Writing from Port Townsend, WA.

We took the Edmonds ferry to Kingston, then crossed the Hood Canal Bridge to Port Townsend. That Sunday evening, we had a glass of wine at the Port Townsend Winery Vintage tasting room and dinner at Alchemy Bistro. PT was quiet. About all there was to do was walk around town.

On Monday morning, I went to my class at the Northwest Maritime Center. There were seven of us assembled to build Chesapeake Lightcraft (CLC) kayaks. Mine is a Shearwater Sport, about 16 feet long and well balanced between performance and comfort (broader beam for stability). We each started with a pile of precut plywood parts, directions, and miscellaneous other bits (copper wire, epoxy, fiberglass sheeting, a few screws, and some shock cord). Joel is our instructor. We are doing the work and Joel comes in when we get stuck. We do not get stuck often, but is has proven key that Joel came in with techniques and tips to keep us moving forward. 

The first day was mostly woodworking. Although the wood parts are precut, the wood does not meet at convenient right angles on the boat, so we spend a lot of time beveling the edges to mate. A small block plane and sandpaper do the trick, but remember there is a lot of edge on a multichined 16-foot boat. The pieces are cut from 4x8-foot sheets of plywood, so the longer pieces are formed by gluing shorter bits together. Joel helped by doing that initial gluing on Sunday so that the epoxy was cured and ready for us to sand on Monday. So one can say that Day One is a dusty day. At the end of the day, the projects do not look like much and there is little obvious change from the start of the day.

Day Two is spent with a lot of little copper wires. The edges ofrhe appropriate pieces of the bottom hull are joined together with hundreds of little copper wires to create the basic shape over some temporary forms and bulkheads. The bulkheads will layer serve to create water tight storage compartments but their initial purpose is to set the shape of the hull. The CNC machine has drilled hundreds of little holes along the edges of the boards. These line up such that the hull pieces can be wired together with “twist ties” to create the correct nautical shape. This is not easy. To join the hull pieces, a simple U-shape works, but to tie in the forms and bulkheads requires some serious distortion of the wire. And all these wires are twisted by hand to bring in the alignment and shape, the further twisted with pliers to set the final shape. I broke a dozen or more wires in the process of adjustment, probably two dozen. Each broken wire was removed and replaced. My fingers were sore at the end.then we repeated this for the top, the deck of the kayak. Finally, we “dry fit” the two to see the shape of the kayak. It took a lot more adjustment to get top and bottom to align, but it was a very satisfying day when we saw the reality of the emerging boat.

Day Three, today, was mostly a day of chemistry and yet more adjustments. We took the boat halves apart and started to apply the first “tacks” of epoxy along the seems. This is to prepare the full structure so that we can later remove the copper wires that were so lovingly fit and tweaked. A light bead of thickened epoxy is laid along each seam of the bottom, skipping over the copper “staples”. Further thickened epoxy is thickly applied, a”filet”, at the bow and stern because they are subjected to greater stresses than the rest of the seams. The top is put on the bottom to check the fit, and the boat is wrapped or taped to set the shape white the epoxy takes an initial set. After lunch, we took the top off again, and did the filet w work on the seams of the top. Then we wired, wrapped, and taped the top and bottom to set overnight to let the epoxy carefully. As we had sometime left, a few of up glued up the support structures for the hatches. We will cut the hatches tomorrow after the epoxy filets and tacks have had a chance to cure.

Tomorrow, Day Four, is more chemistry. We remove the wires to apply filets of fortified epoxy. I expect we will also cut the deck hatches. 

Cookbook arrives - 7 October 2021

Thursday, 7 October 2021.

A quiet day, mostly chores and relaxed "reading" (includes YouTube and death-scrolling, I am afraid).

The cookbook arrived at Obec Brewery.  To be precise, two pallets of cookbooks arrived.  This is The International Table - Recipies from the Seattle Sister Cities, with an introduction by Chef Kristi Brown of That Brown Girl and Communication Seattle.  This book has been under development for about two years - a COVID-19 project, if you will.  Susan has bee working it through the authorship and publication process wihth her partners on behalf of the Seattle Sister Cities Association.  It is out just in time for a holiday gift.  I can personally attest to having tested many of the recipies.  We grabbed a growler of Granat on the way out.

I mention the Cookbook because we went to the Obec Brewery to collect about three dozen books on behalf of ourselves and for other members of the Seattle-Nantes Sister City Association.  

Then we went to the SeattleNantes1980 geocache for some renew and replace action. The previous waterproof box proved not so waterproof when it collected an inch of water in the recent rainy days (an inch of water inside a waterproof box is no bueno).

Finally, I made reservations in Port Townsend for my kayak-building course.  I shall be at the Water Street Hotel.  I am building a Cheasapeake Light Craft Shearwater Sport kayak - seen here. This is scheduled for the week of 24 Oct - 31 Oct 2021.

Maple Pass Loop hike, WA - 4 October 2021

Maple Pass Loop, North Cascades National Park

4 October 2021

The rainy season has started to settle in Seattle with the start of October.  We got a break with some nice weather on Monday, 4 October 2021, where it was sunny but cool.  The waves of weather washing in from the Pacific had a 24-hour gap that allowed the sun to shine.  It was not warm, but the bright colors of the landscape shone in the the sun.  This is the kind of weather that brings out the colors of nature in the mountains - mountain blueberry, sumac, and larches.  Naturally, we decided to go on a hike.  Rather than bury the lede, let me start with a view from the top.

It is a bit of a drive from metro-Seattle to the trailhead, approaching three hours.  We started late (by my keeping) at about 9am, and headed north on I-5 to Arlington on route 530.  This is the boring bit, but heading through Oso, Darrington, and Rockport starts to get prettier and wilder.  Now Route 20 wanders through Newhalem, past Diablo Lake, past Easy Pass Trailhead (hah!) to the Maple Pass Trailhead.  

The trail starts from the ever-crowded parking lot with a steady but brisk rise along a forested valley.  After a couple miles, there is a break to go to Ann Lake or continue upward toward Maple Pass.  As you keep going up, the trail leads across a series of rockslides with nice views of Ann Lake below.

As the trail (seems to) near the top, there is a turn that yeilds a view where everyone stops.  After climbing, it is a treat to see the next valley over.  The saddle between Ann Lake and Lewis Lake has a patch of larches with bright colors.  this is a ruse.  The trail to Maple Pass continues upward.

At this point, the hiker has hit something of a tree-line.  There are trees, but the area is so rocky that very few trees can grow, and few to any size.  The trail climbs and switches back and forth to ascend yet to Maple Pass and a saddle between Ann Lake and Rainy Lake.  Maple Pass does open to the Maple Creek valley, however the trail turns toward Rainy Lake.  

A strong hiker can ascend to Frisco Mountain or farther to Lyall Glacier, but we turned to descent.  The trail descends rapidly above Rainy Lake and then enters the forest that covers the ridge between Ann and Rainy Lakes.  In the photo, one can just make out part of the switchback trail on the left side; just above (and far beyond) the switchbacks is a segment of Route 20 in the distance.

While the mind turns to descent at Maple Pass, I want to show a photo of Rainy Lake (in the distance).  I did not take too many photos on the descent, so this will have to do.  

Notes - In this post, I have included photos, but I wanted to include a video.  I think I have to include a YouTube link, so I will need to experiment further.

Not surprised - 30 Sept 2021

 I spent the day with Medicare.  Well, I started yesterday when I formally and officially applied for Medicare coverage.  I was following a guidebook, generally quite good and very useful, but it left a misimpression that has caused some grief.  Toward the end of the book, there is a checklist to enroll in Medicare.  It makes a blithe reference to the fact that it could take "10 minutes or less" to enroll.  Yeah, about that.  It may take as few as 10 minutes to enter the required information in the Medicare forms (on-line, of course), but then there is a delay while the application is processed (in Albequerque) and a Medicare number is issued.  I got an email to confirm that my applicaton had been recived, but it contains no Medicare number.  The email leaves a gentle impression that the process is quick - but there is no commitment.  

today, I went to register for the Medigap Plan and a corresponding Part D drug plan.  After you enter a bunch of information, it prompts for a Medicare number.  Not unreasonable, but I have none - yet - so I am stuck.   So much for the "10 minute" enrollment.  In a chat-conversation with Betty, a representative of the Medigap insurance company, I discover that it can take "weeks" to get the critical Medicare number.  So I left the Plan process partially completed and started the Plan D drug plan application.  The the surprise of precisely no one, that too needs a Medicare number.  Therefore, I am nominally left without insurance while Medicare proceeds.

Ah!  I hear a shout from the back of the room.  You should have started sooner!  Yes, it would have been prudent to do so.  However, I was awaiting inforation about COBRA benefits from the HR department, and that took a while to arrive.  I had been thinking that I might use COBRA for family coverage through the end of 2021, then pick up on Medicare.  Add in other, personal delays, and I simply did not have enough time with the information to make a decision.

A further complexity is that Medicare is *personal* insturance.  One gets coverage for the self -- and not for the spouse.  COBRA would have covered the spouse; this another factor in the decision process.  Finally, COBRA is expensive.  Surprisingly expensive.  If I were on Social Security, COBRA would consume nearly half of my monthly payment (assuming Social Security were not taxed - which is it, thank you Ronald Reagan).  So my wife spent several hours today to file for WA state health coverage under ACA.  I am glad it exists, but the bureaucracy is astounding.  We are trying to pay them money and the insurance companies make it hard.  SMH.

So, I am technically not covered by insurance.  The last time I made an insurance claim was... 2019?  Maybe?  Anyway, I have chosen to take the risk -- and I can document the fact that I tried to get coverage (tho that may not help in any future discussions, I did try).

Changes - September 3, 2021

As of 3 September 2021, I have retired from AMD.  My time managing a research group is now ended and I am learning to be an old retired guy.  One might think this is easy, that it comes naturally, but I after about three weeks, I still have a lingering compulsion that I have something to do, some meeting to attend, some HR or recruitig mishap to remedy, or a status report to write.  

No.

No such thing.  My days, my time, are mine to define.  I still have responsibilities, but no longer a manager who sets them or an employee that demands them.  For now, I have projects, mainly ones that have been postponed, some postponed for a long time.  I am also fighting a global pandemic (or, rather, doing my best to avoid it) and the seasons have started to change to be more inclement.  This severely limits the outdoors projects.  Horticulture is no fun in the rain and I simply do not want to run a chainsaw, lawn mower, or chipper-shredder in the rain.  

That said, the US-Canada border recently reopened and we have visited the cabin on Keats Island, once in August and once in September.  During this time, we have done a lot of pruning and other maintenance that sets the stage for a big burn in October.  The residents of Plumper Cove traditionally burn the year's pruning pile during the weekend of Canadian Thanksgiving (American Columbus Day or Indigeneous Peoples Day).  Once the fire completes, the rising tide extinguishes the flames and sweeps away the ashes.  I have spent hours in the trees wtih various saws, manual and chain, to produce a distinctively large burn-pile for 2021.  We will also use this event to get rid of some old stain (I much prefer water-based over oil-based, if nothing else for the cleanup).  After a two-year hiatus while the border was closed and the COVID-19 pandemic raged, there was a lot of growth to remove.  I removed a cedar tree near the deck, stripped another cedar tree near the deck, pruned some trees to the south of the cabin (for light), and pruned the cedars on the bank under the cabin.  And more.  I will not pretend I am done, but the season is over and so the work must pause.  the burn will come in Otober and pruning will resume in Spring 2022.

--agk 29 Sep 2021

It's been a long time

According to this site, I got started in blogging in 2005 and took a giant vacation in 2010.  That's a long time ago.

We just finished a trip in Howe Sound, British Columbia, where we caught a small pod of orca.   Caught means "photographed". 

We are about to start a trip to France and Spain to hike in the Pyrenees Mountains.  More soon.

At loose ends

In 2008 I was training for Northern Tier.

In 2009 I was training for Philmont.

In 2010 I was training again for Northern Tier.

Both my sons have done the Triple Crown (Northern Tier, Philmont, Seabase), so what do I do now?

And home again

We're back. It was a great trip - seven days on the water, two days at the base camp, and a day of travel. We camped six times, portaged 20-30 times, and covered an estimated 117 miles (about 10 of which were portage miles and the rest paddled). One big result - no injuries. A couple of quick impressions --

1. Get the Kevlar canoes. The aluminum canoes are rugged but I'm sure they were part of the reason we had two injuries on the 2008 trip and NONE on the 2010 trip.
2. Train. Then train some more. If you show up without training, you'll pay for the lack.
3. Cardio training. The portage trails are rough and the packs are heavy. You'll be happier on the portage trails if you've trained carrying weight on trails (get some vertical if you can, use stadium steps if you can't get it on trails). All the packs start out at about 50 lbs; the food packs get progressively lighter but the others remain heavy.
4. Skills training. Paddle canoes and go canoe camping at least once, preferrably twice. Practice the wilderness skills - Leave No Trace. If your crew members can't j-stroke, if they don't have some power in their strokes, they'll fail when the wind kicks up.
5. Team training. You'll have some crew members who don't get the idea of working as a team. They'll put of their own tent but let someone else struggle with another tent, they'll take care of their personal needs and preferences first and leave the group responsibilities to others, and they will be selfish instead of sharing. Find out who they are and decide if they can be tolerated. One bad apple...
6. Test skills. Have each team member demonstrate that they have the skills needed. Otherwise you'll have a bunch of sandbaggers who stress all the others.
7. Have a written duty roster. This cuts down on a LOT of arguments.
8. Go to Quetico. The Boundary Waters (BWCA) are just plain crowded.
9. If the advisers like coffee, take a spare stove. I recommend the Starbucks instant coffee in the little tubes.
10. As an advisor, stand back and let the scouts run the show. There are times when you, the advisor, will have to lay down the law (e.g., no one eats dinner until ALL the tents are up, pads are unrolled, and sleeping bags ready). I say this because otherwise you'll be standing around feeding the mosquitoes while the scouts dawdle with and fuss with their tents.
11. Make the rules clear, then repeat five times. Shoes mandatory. Life vests mandatory. Buddy system mandatory. For some reason, mail teen-agers don't understand multi-word sentences until many repetitions. Keep the rules simple and clear so that you don't waste time picking nits with some budding lawyer.

For fun, take a gander at this video -- a portage from the point of view of the guy under the canoe.

Departing soon for Northern Tier

I had all these plans to reignite this blog by tracking our training for Northern Tier. Ah, it would have been brilliant. People would have been inspired to get up out of their lounges and off their sofas to head out into the wilderness. Didn't happen. So that's the bad news. The good news is that I'm doing my final packing and we leave on Monday.

We catch a flight at the crack o' dawn on Monday morning and arrive in Minneapolis a bit after noon, high noon. This "we" is a group of six teen-aged boys and two teen-aged adults; or at least we have teen-aged dreams of wilderness adventure. We'll toss our stuff into our rental cars and head to the Mall of America for lunch. After that, we head up to the US Hockey Hall of Fame Museum. We spend the night at a warmed-up ski center and on Tuesday go to visit the Soudan Underground Mine State Park to tour an iron mine 2,341 feet down. After lunch, we arrive at Charles L. Sommers Northern Tier Canoe Base. After that, we're on our own. We start in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) in northern Minnesota but we quickly paddle through Prairie Portage into the Quetico. It will be a while, but we'll return to the US and then head on home.

See you on the flip side.

TRASFER OF US$25,000.000.00 FROM FIRST NATIONAL BANK

I have received this invitation to great wealth. Being a generous person, I hereby decline the personal benefit of selfish actions and share this knowledge freely with the rest of the world. In the unlikely event that you should decide to partake, to reply back [sic], and become wealthy, please remember the small people.

And herewith follow the words of Mr. David Brown and TRASFER (david123kgobudi@rediffmail.com).

-----

FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF SOUTH AFRICA

FROM: MR. DAVID BROWN

Tell: +27- 78-773-6361

E-mail: davidbrownsa2010@gmail.com

Dear: Friend,

Do accept my sincere apologies if my mail does not meet your personal ethics. I will introduce myself as Mr. David Brown, the accountant staff in the accounts management section of the above firm here in the South Africa.

This is the detail of what I want you to assist me in doing, One of our accounts with holding balance of US$25,000.000.00 (Twenty Five Million United States Dollars) has been dormant and has not been operated for the past four (9) years. From my investigations and confirmations, the owner of this account, a foreigner by name (Mr. Kurt Kahle) died in July, 2000, For more Information see BBC News on:-http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

And since then nobody has done anything as regards the claiming of this money because he has no family members who are aware of the existence of neither the account nor the funds. I have secretly discussed this matter with a senior official of this bank and we have agreed to find a reliable foreign partner to deal with. We thus propose to do business with you, standing in as the next of kin of these funds from the deceased and funds released to you after due processes have been followed.

Noted that in percentage you will be entitled to 30% of the total sum as gratification, while 5% will be set aside to take care of expenses that may arise during the time of transfer while 65% will be for my partners and me. Please you have been advised to keep top secret and noted that this transaction is totally free of risk and troubles as the fund is legitimate and does not originate from drug, money laundry, terrorism or any other illegal act. On receipt of your response I will furnish you with detailed clarification as it relates to this mutual benefit transaction, I look forward to hearing from you as soon as possible if you are interested and with your trust. And also furnish me with the following information’s.

For us to proceed, you have to urgently send to me the following information’s because this are the information required from the lawyer who will obtain all legal documents needed to establish you as the next of kin and legal beneficiary of the funds, To get the required approval for the release and transfer of the fund to your bank account.

YOUR FULL NAMES...................

YOUR TEL/FAX NUMBERS.........

YOUR COUNTRY....................….

YOUR OCCUPATION..............….

YOUR HOUSE ADDRESS…………

YOUR STREET ADDRESS………..

YOUR AGE…………………………..

SEX………………………………..

As soon as i receive the above information’s i will contact the lawyer who will obtain all the legal clarify approval document under your name.

GOD BLESS YOU AS YOU REPLY BACK.

Mr. MR. DAVID BROWN

Tell: + 27-78-773-6361

E-mail: davidbrownsa2010@gmail.com

Northern Tier 2010

We're in full-swing training for Northern Tier. Northern Tier (NT) is the BSA National High Adventure Base for canoeing. We're going to the Charles L. Somers Canoe Base outside Ely, MN in the last week of July and the first part of August, 2010. The base is in or near the BWCA - Boundary Waters Canoe Area - and just south of Quetico. I've been there twice before. The first time was as a college student or recent grad (I'd have to check the dates) and was in 19jasjdhf. Gosh, that must have been a data transmission error. The second time was in 2008 with my older son and a group of Boy Scouts. This time is with my younger son and a group of Boy Scouts. I sense a pattern.

The crew this year is a bunch of 15- and 16-year-olds. The 2008 crew was a bit older and bigger; the biggest guys on the 2010 crew would be the smallest on the 2008 crew. This means we won't go as many miles (109 or so in 2008), but we'll still have a grand time. Although we start in BWCA, we cross over into the Quetico on the first day and don't return to the US until the last day. Yes, we cross an international border and need all the appropriate paperwork.

For training, we started with hikes and bike trips. I divide training into three purposes: cardiovascular health and endurance, skill development, and team-building. Since the water was cold in January, we started with hikes - a weekly 6+ mile hike with increasing weight and irregular weekend hikes for fun. For variety, we also did some cycling - about a 20-mile trip on a suburban bike trail. As the weather warmed in May, we got into canoes. Fortunately, we have a crew member who lives across the street from Cottage Lake, so we are able to use their house as a base and portage the canoes over to the Lake. The paddling started out pretty light, building up to a mile in the early days, but now we're more like 1.5-2 miles (it is a small lake). We also did a canoe-camping trip to Diablo Lake in the North Cascades. We did 13 miles over two days with two nights camped. The weather was great, so this was a good trip for a break-in. Finally, having the guys travel together, camp together, and work together is the best team-building I know, so that's what we do.

More later.

Fire in the Mountains

We dropped the boys off at Stevens Pass to ski and continued on toward Leavenworth. We've done a lot of hiking in the Icicle Creek canyon and thought we'd try a snowshoe hike today. I'd forgotten, but huge fires swept through the Icicle Creek area in 1994. Irony would have us visit today - a recent fire at a candy store outside of town left a smoking ruin. We never stopped there, but it was a landmark telling us we were approaching the town.

The forest fire was in the news in 2004 but other fires had pushed it out of our memories. It was an interesting drive as we entered the canyon. The memories came back as we studied the hillsides for evidence of the fire. It's easy to see after a while. At first, the area looked like a clear cut - there were stands of a few trees here and there that survived. But then it became clear there were none of the slash piles left by loggers, and there were bare spires standing that loggers would never have left. On the ground, it was obviously a fire. We walked up a Forest Service road and the undergrowth was thick on one hand; and there was virtually no undergrowth on the other. The fire had demolished it all.
The area is restoring itself. Recreation continues. But the scale of the fire is astounding; in a city, it would be blocks and blocks. Our drive through the fire-scarred area went for miles and the burned areas climbed the hillsides for nearly a thousand feet. I don't know if it crossed the ridge into the next valley. I hope to do a backpacking trip into the Alpine Lakes this summer, and that should reveal the secret.

Rank has its privs

We were visiting the Gettysburgh battlesite and I finally understood how rank influences. It became clear to me that Colonel Sanders has a fried chicken place, but General Pickett has an entire buffet.