The Boundary Waters - Part 1

Our trip up north to the Boundary Waters was just great.  We, along with another family, spent 6 days and 5 nights out in the wilderness.  But first, we had to get there.

Here we are loaded down with the 2 canoes strapped tightly on top.  From home, we had 700 miles to travel to the north.

Along the way, we stopped in Chippewa Falls.  They have a great park and zoo that is all free.  Kids burned off some car energy bouncing around.

This is one of the tunnels along the north shore highway of Minnesota.  This is the view from the passenger seat of the van.

We took another healthy stop at Gooseberry Falls and hiked around the property.  Kiddo #3 always has to strike a pose when he sees the camera come out.

Another shot of Gooseberry Falls.

We hiked around and got to the upper falls.  Along the hike, Kiddo #1 showed off her amazing strength!

We finally made it to our final destination.  Sawbill Canoe Outfitters on Sawbill Lake is a great starting point for entering the BWCA.  We even found a great sale on used gear, and bought 2 bent-shaft paddles for a great price.  

We geared up and packed our packs before heading out.  Here, the 3 kids are showing off the new packs I made for each of them.  They worked out tremendously well.  Each kid could haul their own gear, and the older 2 even hauled some of the communal gear.  

Those are Canadian bug shirts on the two boys.  Borrowed from a Guy at work - they worked out very well for this trip.

 Kiddo #3 is ready to go, and is marching his gear down to the Sawbill landing.  Our adventure starts with the next blog post!

Chopped Hair

Our Number One Kiddo has had long hair for ages.  The problem is it gets tangled up easily.  In the same breath, she doesn't untangle her hair or care very well for it, so that chore falls on the Loving Wife.  She's getting pretty well tired of dealing with it every day, so off it goes.

Today was the day for the big chop.  I'm very pleased with the results.  I think she looks like a little lady.

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.