Project #361

A few years ago I attended a Preparedness Fair at the Camptonville Branch (which used to be in our stake). It was about the same as most of these kind of affairs, but there was a guy there who had made a solar cooker out of a used medium sized satellite dish (just larger than the one you see below) and covered it with 1"mirror tiles he had bought from craft stores throughout the Sacramento area. He has to go to every craft store in town to get enough (and it ended up costing him over $100), but the thing worked quite well. I watched him fry up some sausages while I stood there as quickly as on a regular stove top.

I couldn't get the thought of this "fire-less campfire" out of my mind, and when our stake clerk offered to give me an used small dish, I took it and started my project. You know how cheap I am, so I used some old 1' mirror tiles which I cut down into 1" squares. After gluing them on to the dish, I bought some 3/4" PVC pipe and connectors to make what you see below.

I haven't actually cooked anything on it yet, but a friend of mine stuck his hand out over it (near the focal point) and then pulled it back very quickly, saying "oh, that works!"

River Trip

I finally got out on the river with the repaired canoe. It wasn't as much fun as I had hoped, mostly because the Feather River is so slow moving as it passes Yuba City, it's like paddling across a lake. It took me way longer to get down the couple of miles I'd planned (and with almost no current, it was WAY too much work). Below is a pic of the landing where I got out at Boyd Pump boat ramp.

The real excitement was going over the little falls. I almost kept it upright, but the thing is so short and light, and unstable - well, it went over and tossed me out. I pulled it to shore and righted it, then went on my way. It really was the only thing that made the trip exciting.

But I took my sport-cam with me and filmed the whole trip. Below is a shortened version with all the high points (my dip in the drink included).

You may or may not think it's worth watching to the end. But here it is, warts and all.

33 Years Together

This is Mom's card to me for our anniversary. Most of you will understand the background. I though it was pretty funny. It was especially so because the little boy looks like I did when I was little (only with brown hair) and the little girl looks like Mom when she was that age.

My card to her had a picture of a chimp with a goofy look on his face (I thought it was fitting) and it said: "I got you a card that would remind you of me." The card doesn't open, so you end up turning it over, where it says: "It doesn't do what it's supposed to either."

We went out to eat at Home Town Buffet and thought of Pam and all the money she made there. (She'd stuff all her tips in her socks, and when she came home she'd pull off her socks and I'd help her count it. Good memories.
We ate fish and shrimp, rolls and chocolate milk, and hot brownies with ice cream. We had a good time.

More Bodega Bay

One of the problems with having so many cameras (my standard digital camera, the camera on my iPod, and the camera on my Android smart phone - all of which have zoom, take both still and video , and have relatively high resolution - the iPod even takes 360 deg panoramic shots) is that sometimes I forget that I took pictures with more than one of them while on a trip or outing.

So what you see below are photos from my phone that I took while wandering up the beach early one morning at Bodega Bay a few weeks ago, like the wonderful site of the ocean just over the rise as I approached.

People gather driftwood and build structures or forts, sometime to break the wind, and sometimes just to be creative - like these

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I climbed to the top of this one. It was about 12' high

At the far south end of the beach there was this little cave, maybe 5 1/2' in diameter. I walked in as far as I it went (maybe 20'). The shot on the left is looking into the cave, the one on the right is looking out.

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I really do enjoy going over to camp at Bodega Bay. I did a pretty fair amount of boogie boarding, even though there were no pictures this time.

Final Project

Now that summer is over I can report on my final project. This is one of the canoes that my good friend Cliff Johnson (fondly known as "Cliffy" or "Cliff Diver") gave me. Both canoes needed to be repaired before they could be sea worthy. The larger, nicer one needed some supports built to keep it from caving in on itself when anyone sat in it. (Ask me about the story sometime, I was there when Cliff wrapped it around a boulder in the Yuba River at Parks Bar. No danger, just a good story.) The canoe pictured above was in pretty tough shape though. It's a 12' canoe (the other one is the standard 18') and a light-weight affair. It holds one adult or two small youth.

Anyway, there were several cracks and breaks in the fiberglass hull, the paint was chipping off all over it, and the wood slats used for the seats were well worn. So after a few weeks of working on it with whatever time I had, I put at least six fiberglass patches on the inside and outside of the hull. I sanded down the entire canoe (inside and out plus the wood seats), put four heavy coats of extra tough duty paint on the outside hull, and two coats of regular exterior house paint on the inside. I also put two heavy coats of Verathane on the seats. I still want to add some thin rubber bumpers to the three skids that run along the length of the bottom for extra protection.

It looks pretty good... but will it float? Of course it will, I just need to take it out next week end and piddle around with it. Anybody what to join me?

Bodega Bay Beach Bonanza!

One of the last things on my summer To Do list was to go to the beach. For years we have liked camping at Bodega Dunes (because the showers are free EVERY day) It's kind of expensive, but it's really a nice campground with good beach access. It was cloudy and cool with wind, but no fog. Below is a poorly pieced together photo of our campsite. Real secluded and close to the showers.

My common practice is to set up a wind shield on the beach before heading into the surf. The day was still cloudy when I first went it, but after a short nap on the sand I went back in to sunshine (and I have the reddened face to prove it). The tide was in and hammering the beach pretty hard, which made for some fast rides. I enjoyed my time greatly.

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One of our other favorite spots in Bodega is the Spud Point Crab Co. This is the place Kim and David went to with us a couple of years ago when a free lance photographer took our pictures for AAA's VIA magazine. The have the world's best clam chowder, and great crab cakes (available only of Sta. & Sun. - rats!) But the food really is great. I had the shrimp sandwich on a toasted roll, and shared Mel's chowder.

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After the feast we drove out to Bodega Head (where the wind was just howling) and hiked a little along the trail. I thought this was a funny shot of the three seagulls. These three photos give a good perspective of how they were perched on a narrow ridge 100' above the sea.

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And the final photos are also from Bodega Head. Here Mom shields herself from the wind, and next to her is a cool looking arch like the ones we used to explore up at Wages Creek. (Remember those days?) All of those arches were knocked down during the earthquake of 1989.

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We really had a good time, and ate well as always. We used our new tent again (we actually bought a tent two years ago, but must have loaned it to someone who has not returned it, because it's nowhere to be found this year).

Anyway, both of us have to put in two days next week at school, then the students come back on the 15th and away we go.

Yosemite National Park

Here we are at the sign by the front gate at Yosemite. Melody had never been there, so we decided to spend a couple of days camping and hiking some of the scenic trails.

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I'll get the unpleasantness out of the way first. There were no camp sites available in any of the park camps. Even the one I had planned on using (figuring it was so far away from the valley floor that it surely would have a few sites empty). No such luck. We spent 8 hours in the car the first day driving to Yosemite, looking for sites, and driving back outside the park to get a spot in the closest campground we could find. Below you see my cute wife beside our new tent.

Okay, better things happened the next day. We got several GREAT photos of all the must see sights, including El Capitan (looking East on the left and looking West on the right). No climbers were on the face that day.

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This is Bridal Veil Falls, our first mini-hike which was very nice. Later, on our way to the foot of Yosemite Falls, I snapped this photo of Half Dome, which from this angle looks very similar to Old Man Mountain. In reality, what you see from this view is mostly the face of the cliff. The dome itself is very thin - almost like it should be named 1/10 Dome instead of 1/2 Dome.

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You've seen (and maybe been through) drive-through trees - this is a drive through rock near a southern entrance to that park. Very picturesque. We would have enjoyed it much more had we not already been in the car for 7 hours looking for a place to camp... At right you see me outstanding in my field. Actually, the meadow that is Yosemite Valley.

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Below is a far-away view of Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls, and the other one is also taken from a distance with me standing up close to the falls with my arms spread and getting wet.

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Probably my favorite part of the day was when Melody let me hike all the way up to Vernal Falls. It's a short 1.5 miles one way - and a 1,000' gain in elevation. It's really not bad until the last 2/10th of a mile. Then it becomes very steep stair steps - and very wet. That's why they call it the Mist Trail. I got soaked through. Anyway, here's couple of shots of Vernal Falls. On the left 'm at the top of the falls looking over the edge, on the right is just below the falls. Beautiful.

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While I was moving up the trail, taking pics at the top, and running back down, Mom made it much of the way up. I was impressed. It turned out to be easier to head up at that elevation (6,000'-7,000') than I thought it would be. I'm grimacing in the photo below because I'm holding the camera while having the mist from the falls blow right into my face. Did I mention that I got very wet?

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We visited the museum, saw the exhibits, hiked to the falls, and did pretty much everything we wanted. There's a lot to do, but we didn't want to stay outside the park again for a second night, so we drove home. Maybe we'll have to do it with you guys some time.

And finally, for those who were camping at the coast several years ago (sorry Chris, you were in Boston) here's a special feature I know you'll appreciate.