Catching Up Through Pictures

Wow - where did the last 2 months go!  I can't believe time flies so fast.  Here are the top 10 happenings since my last posting:

1.  Spring Fling at Purdue (but we're old enough to know it as the Bug Bowl)

(yup - that's ol' John Purdue below)

 

2.  Easter.  We spent the day with some friends, and went to a local park for a few pictures of the families.

  (And the obligatory egg hunt afterwards)

3.  Fat Night

4.  Cub Scout Shootout - with archery

 and BB guns

and sling shots (with dog food as ammunition)

5.  Pre-Kindergarten Graduation

6.  The Flood - just another spring shower

7.  The Monster Lego Set - So we've been teaching Kiddo #2 about money.  He decided to pool all his Christmas money, Birthday money, some bank money (and a loan from Kiddo #1) to buy the Lego set 42055 - The Bucket Wheel Excavator.

It has just under 4000 pieces.  The instruction book is 550 pages.  

 It took him a solid 4 days of work, with some tender fingers thereafter.

8.  Mother's Day - it was a beautiful day of weather.

9.  Portage Pads - for carrying the canoes.  Once I made up my mind, I was able to make them rather quickly.

10.  Kiddo #3 Sleeping.  Nothing too special, other than rounding out my tenth place to make a nice even number.

Things I've Learned about Sewing

From a guy's point of view who has never sewed before, I've learned a few things that all you expert sewers probably know

1.  Pins are sharp, and can really stick deep into you.  When you jerk away from that pin that's stuck in you, it can tear your skin really easily.

2.  When you're bleeding profusely from all those pin sticks, it's best to clean yourself up and get some band-aids.  Blood can stain new material easily.

3.  Don't sew over pins.  The sewing machine makes terrible sounds when you do that.

Outside of those few points, I have learned a few things about real sewing:

1.  Sewing is like welding:  The more preparation you do, the prettier (and easier) your weld (or seam) will be.

2.  Stop the seam with the thingamajig in the upmost position.  I think that is called the thread-take-up-lever.  This snugs up the stitch and doesn't leave a big loop.

3.  When sewing through super thick layers like nylon webbing plus fabric, go real slow.

4.  If the leather belt of the treadle is slipping, you're trying to sew through too many layers too quickly.

5.  When sewing big bulky things, make seams on the right so the big bulk of fabric hangs on the left (rather than trying to fit it all under the arm of the sewing machine).

6.  Sometimes it is good to hold things together with sacrificial stitches spaced real far apart.  After you sew the parts together for real, then you can rip out that sacrificial pre-stitch.  As a bonus, there are no sharp pins to get pricked with.  (See above).

7.  It's good to take a break from sewing every few days to allow your fingers to heal from the pin pricks.  This also allows for better dexterity without 7 band-aids on 10 of your fingers.

With all that knowledge absorbed, here is the second backpack I made.  Modeling for me is Kiddo #1 again:

This pack has a few new features.  Notably, zippered side pockets.

And a 2 inch embroidered patch of a Ninja Squirrel.

I upgraded my sewing on of the nylon webbing.  It now looks nicer.  (And this is a good close up of the Ninja Squirrel)

I also made a big back zippered pocket.

All these zippers are from old laptop bags.

A spindrift collar folds over and onto the contents kind of like a cereal box.

Some extra D-Hooks are available for strapping on sandals or water bottles or whatever might be loose.

Again, I used shoulder straps from old laptop bags.  

I incorporated a carabiner into the strap, too.

I reinforced the shoulder straps at the top with more webbing, and then a canvas patch over all of it.  

Total Cost = about $8.25, and that includes a $3 patch!

I'm pretty pleased with it.  I hope it hold up.

Make Your Own Duluth Pack

A Duluth Pack is a specialized backpack mostly used in the canoe community.  It's a simple, no frills pack that has a big single compartment.  They lay flat in the bottom of the canoe for expeditions.

With our upcoming summer BWCA trip, I wanted a few more Duluth Packs for the 3 kids.  However, they are crazy expensive.  They range anywhere from $150 to over $500.  I thought this was absolutely crazy, so I made my own for about $7.

I started with some water resistant 600 denier canvas for $5.49 per yard.  My other expense was a $1.60 worth of a "tension lock tri-glide" strap buckles.  That is the buckle that allows adjustment on the shoulder strap system.  The rest of my materials and parts were scavenged off old laptop bags that were being thrown away.

Here's the finished product modeled by Kiddo #1 standing in front of my big BWCA map.  This pack is 22 inches tall, 14 inches wide, and 7 inches fat.

It has a big flap cover that is cinched down with side release buckles.

I reinforced all those cinch straps with extra fabric.  

The shoulder straps are old straps from a laptop bag.

They work perfectly for this new application.

The inside of the bag is just single, big compartment.  Here I have just a single sleeping pad and one uncompressed sleeping bag to fill up the volume for pictures.

I hope to make 2 more packs for the other 2 kids.  The next pack will probably have a few design tweaks such as a taller, fold-able collar (like a cereal box top) and maybe some extra pouches on the side with zippers.

I'm no sewing expert by any means.  This is my first sewing project, and I learned a ton.  Cutting fabric in a straight line, and sewing squishy fabric in a straight line, and many other things were at the top of the learning list.  That, plus learning how to pump this old Singer treadle sewing machine slowly and consistently.

Time Flies

Somehow, January slipped right by without a single blog update.  It was a busy month starting with my birthday.  Little presents were all great.  Cozy kids were even better.

Loving wife made an awesome German Chocolate Cake.  It tasted even better than it looks, if that's even possible.  In the words of Roald Dahl, it was scrumdiddlyumptious.

We had a "Pancakes with Pops" event sometime in mid-January.  This is a fun Saturday morning hosted by the Kid-Alive pre-K class at our church.  This will be my last event of this type for our youngest will be moving on to Kindergarten next year.  It was a great time.

We had Kiddo #2 birthday, too!

Awesome cupcakes, of course.

Somehow, I didn't get a picture of Loving Wife's birthday at the end of the month, but we had a fun evening that entailed nearly killing a carrot cake.

And here is #3 Kiddo with "Llama Llama" from that series of books at our nearby library.  It sure is hard to get this kid to smile on cue, but he did real well here.

The St Louis Trip

We took a quick day day trip to St Louis this past Christmas week.  The reason to go was for the purchase of a beautiful canoe through a Craigslist transaction.  We turned it into a mini-vacation that included a few museums.

Our first day was the Science Center.  It was amazing,

and just perfect for our crew of kids.  

  Number 2 Kiddo really liked the hydraulic excavator assembly.  He caught on real quick.  It must be all those heavy equipment videos we've watched in the past.

Chillin' out while watching a space video.

The next day, we visited the City Museum near the downtown of St Louis.  This is certainly a parent's worst nightmare, with little tunnels, caves, and tight spaces to navigate through.  But it was also a ton of fun for the kids.

There area a few museum-ish things, but they aren't as much fun for the kids.  Was this building a bank in its former glory?  I don't know.

More and more climbing.  We arrived at this museum early in the morning, and left right at closing time of 5pm.  We were all pretty bushed.  Our knees and backs ached.

On our last morning, we went to the zoo.  It was a cool and breezy day, and we took multiple rides in the carousel.  Kids had their favorite animals.  Kiddo #3 is on his river otter.

And here is Kiddo #1 on her favorite wart hog.

After the zoo, I met a new friend as we worked our canoe transaction.  He helped us tie the canoe to the top of the Honda van, and made sure we were safe to travel.  I wish we could have spent more time to talk and learn from him.

After a very breezy and gusty trip home through the flat plains of Illinois, we made it home safely.  And here is the beautiful blue canoe.  It is made by Swift (out of Canada).  

The model is called the Winisk.  I reckon it's named 

after the river in northern Canada, eh?

It is very well constructed, and has been meticulously maintained for the last 17 years.  It is in immaculate condition as these pictures show.

 This kevlar canoe is 17.5 feet long weighs in the 53 to 55 pound arena.  It looks very comfortable and I can't wait to try it out in the spring.

What beautiful crafsmanship.  Just look at this scalloped portaging yoke.  It looks like a piece of art!

Overall, I'm very pleased.  It was the perfect ending 

to a fun St Louis trip!