Access to Tools

[hannah j]

After WP's visit early this summer (so long ago!)  my interest in human powered (with some help) vehicles was rekindled. 

With the extraordinary heat, the problems of growing food in a changing or erratic climate was made clear.

So, I thought maybe we needed a discussion centered on tools and such.  Thoughts?

[pan]

Now I'm boring as fuck.

 

If that is true, either you aren't boring at all or you aren't doing the other thing right.....

[pan]

Just got back from the Tetons.  Visibility was the worst I've ever seen.  It was like living in LA.

Seems that Idaho, Montana and Utah are on fire.

Great backpack trip though.  Got in touch with my hand pump water filter - don't take clean, clear water for granted when you have to hand pump every drop while sitting at a (beautiful) mountain stream.

Our cukes an zukes are crazy.  Tomatoes just coming on.  Beans and peas were a total bust.  Peppers and eggplant are anemic.  Got a monster volunteer acorn squash and some sort of melon.

Drinking a home brew.  Hiking, biking, homebrew....my therapy.  Actually this has been a great summer - Finland in May, new deck and pergola, finally built my record shelves so I am listening to some great tunes that have been boxed for years, visit from Waldo, mountain biking in the Sawtooth mountains and the Tetons, backpacking in the White Cloud and Tetons.  Some excellent homebrews.

[waldopaper]

Some good news: 

Plus what I think is still the best idea ever:  Electric Tractor. 

[pan]

Ms. Medusa, while hiking up Granite Canyon in the Tetons, said we should build a velodrome above the audience for Double Blind Sided and then Waldo could ride around in a quad the whole performance, stopping once in awhile to talk about the Slipcraft......of course that would be way outside our budget but, cool idea nevertheless.

[pan]

Lifesavers water filtration cleans down to 15 nanometres (the smallest known virus is 25 nanometres).

Obama is making noise about bypassing Congress to cap (and trade) c... Claims that it will reduce output by 30%.  A start.   Too little, and most likely too late.  But a start.

[waldopaper]

back to the real world for a minute.  i aint trying to sound like a sock expert or nothin, but for 15 bucks you should check these out.

and i know skivies is highly a matter of personal preference, and if you need performance to the specs i do, check these out.

i carry a minimum number of items on the road, and many of their items have seen 10 years of everyday use.  just sayin.

 

[pan]

My in-laws gave me a gift certificate to Duluth a few years back.  I know I picked up some gloves with the little extra leftover from the big purchase....I can't remember what was the main thing I bought.  I was impressed looking at their catalog that they had the good sense to put a gusset in the crotch of their jeans. That is a trick we have been using for years to turn regular clothes into dance costumes - put gussets in the crotch or in the armpits to allow for more movement.  Makes so much sense for people who want to work in their clothes to make them wear longer and better.

I tend to get my performance wear from Campmor.   They are more targeted for outdoor enthusiasts (rather than blue collar types working outdoor) but a lot of the clothing works just the same - and I think Campmor's "Hot Deals" offer really good prices.  I have some high performance skivvies but have decided that the comfort of cotton is worth the little extra space in my bag - I just put them in a ziplock bag and squeeze all the air out to compact it as much as I can - hand washing and hanging them to dry keeps you fresh.

[Mouse]

It was when I described the clothes my boyfriend wore at dance class, that my father told me never to darken his doorstep again. I did, many times.

leg warmers patterned with leopard skin
that was the inadmissable sartorial choice.
I laughed, but they really didn't suit him at all.

[waldo mobile]

"And laugher, learnt of friends, and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. "

[pan]

When I told J of your advice about socks and underwear she laughed, said we are all getting a certain age where such things aren't taken for granted anymore.

[waldopaper]

HERE is the next installment.  Come on you guys tell me it doesn't suck. 

Got lots of stuff from Campmoor.  One is a green nylon shirt with polyfleece lining I wear most of the winter. Now I learn that micro fibers go in the water so I never wash it.   Buck Naked is the bomb.  After decades of wearing cotton tighty whities and after so much time they get nasty and itchy.  No dry quickly.  My new slacky blackies save a lot of re packing on the road. 

Back when i was doing manual labor it was Carharts.  They started making them cheezy.  Fell apart.  That's when I got into Duluth.  Stuff worn by portly palookas who work in it all day in out.  No fall apart so far.  They are doing some crazy sheet with micro-fibers.  They are doing crazy shit with minds.  Opera has my chestnuts out the fire. 

[pan]

We just got kicked out of a Bed and Breakfast in Arlon, Belgium because we complained to the host that she wasn't making us feel welcome and her room was an oppressive dorm (we were much nicer when we talked to her).  She was agreeable until we got back from dinner and her husband got all up in our faces based upon the lies she had told him about what actually happened.  

Sigh.....the Belgians in Luxembourg region have a reputation for being really, really nice.  I guess J and P manage to not go along to get along just about every where.  And on the anniversary of DDay so near the Battle of the Bulge memorial.