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!

First Present of Christmas

Major excitement - just one present allowed on Christmas Eve.  

The excitement was just too much for Kiddo #3 

as you can tell by his expression.

Family Picture - Thanksgiving 2016

All 15 of us together for fun at my little sister's house

the day after Thanksgiving.  That was a good time.

Hot Air Balloon Landing

We had some major unexpected happenings this evening.  A hot air balloon dropped in our front yard for a visit.

We saw the balloon off to the west, and they were travelling slowly our way.  We thought they were going to land in the neighbor's open field, but the balloon went back up and made a little jump over some trees and my barn.  We watched them land right in our front yard - right between my willow tree stump and the flowering crab apple tree.

Kids were totally excited to see all this happen.

Since the balloon was between a couple of obstructions, the pilot wanted to scooch over closer to the creek.  He had the 3 kids climb inside the basket, he shot some hot air back in the balloon, and we floated them over about 30 feet.  Here's a picture of the 3 kids floating over - their first balloon ride ever:

 They landed 15 seconds later without incident.  

They tore the balloon down pretty quickly, and kids helped cram the balloon in a big bag.  

It was a super exciting evening for everybody!

Hiking and Camping at Shades State Park

A week ago, during Fall Break, we spent 3 days and camped out 2 nights at Shades State Park.  What a gem of a park.  Kids, and us too, thoroughly enjoyed it.  We enjoyed...

Rock hopping and slipping off slimy logs:

Secret waterfalls:

Scenic overlooks:

And beautiful weather:

We all enjoyed hiking the deep ravines:

#3 Kiddo made a boat out of a piece of bark, and floated

it down every little waterfall to be had.  

Break time at the big boulder.

The ladders were exciting to go up and down.

And a funny tree just fit for 3 kids:

Kiddo #3 didn't mind getting his feet wet, and kept them wet for about 8 hours each of the 3 days.  He was quite the adventurer.