we get aircraft soap in these 20 gallon barrels, and use a lot of it. I have a good collection of them, but find the plastic is thin and they don't stand up to repeated use well. so I figured they'll make rack covers with a little work I had to kneel on it to get it flat enough to screw down Scrap wood to support the seams ran out of time, but I like how it works out.
my other weekend project , installing an upstairs bathroom vent fan. Took most of the family to wrestle the ladder into place so I could put in the vent hood. success. also got some pictures of a couple more foam kayaks . This one is built of Styrofoam , which absorbs water, so he coated it with paper mache to seal it And another first float test, still not yet wrapped. This brings the number I know of to 56!
some pictures of a catamaran foam paddle board I just found. an amazing amount of ice still on the rock cuts on the Windham rail trail yesterday shoulder season means relighting the fire every night. I can't believe how easy it is using noodles, one match and away it goes
Nashua River Railtrail yesterday, started at the Nashua end, haven't been on this trail in a few years interesting tunnel to get the water to the generation station from the dam The rowbike was invented by Scott Olson, he also created rollerblades. This is an early model, and probably custom made for someone shorter. The later models have multiple gears and a longer chain with better mechanics. The single speed is only good for flat trails. I got an awesome deal on it, and it's a great workout until I can go paddling.
got some more roofing installed on the racks Saturday morning. Saturday evening I took my daughter to her protocol dinner. We homeschool, and are part of a homeschool co-op. Every year the kids in high school have the equivalent of a Jr-Sr banquet . They go to a fancy restaurant for dinner , then we went to see the Phantom of the opera at the Providence theater . They ate at a really fancy Greek restaurant, the food was good, but some didn't get their whole meal in 2.5 hours. I went down the street , are and then walked around Providence, RI They've made the riverfront into a canal with walkways, pedestrian bridges and parks. Looking out towards Narragansett bay Venetian Gondola passing in front of the county courthouse a big three story mall built as a bridge over the river Those Island state house in the background definitely a place I'll be visiting again for a dinner date in the summer the play was great, I was just as impressed with the sets they used, obviously many millions of dollars went into making them the kids even got mentioned on the marquee! the inside of the building is beautiful, lots of detail everywhere .
yesterday I split a bunch of my back log, got another half cord stacked, and started filling in the last empty rack I have. This is gonna be an unusual year, I expect to have my racks completely filled before summer, it will be weird not having to do any scrounging this year, I might have to give up my hoarders club card!
Phantom of Opera was one I went to a couple of times. The music is awesome. Were those marker buoys in the river or tie up buoys? The black round ones. Would there be quite a current to paddle against or has all the building around it slowed it down?
They appear to be bouys to show the channel. The gondola rower was making good speed heading up river with two passengers and a breeze, if he could do it, my lightweight kayaks would skim right through, definitely on my paddling bucket list!
Pretty sure the square ones are for the fires. Years ago when the river was green goo horribly polluted with metals from the jewelry industry and other sources a lot of the river was covered over with parking lots - you wouldn't even have known it was there. They yanked out the parking lots, a few bridges and even Route 195 and exposed it all. There could still be all manner of support structure left behind. They cleaned up the river - it actually looks like water now. Course the jewelry industry and the jobs eventually mostly all went to China. But the river doesn't look like you could walk on it any more.
Newburyport rail trail Joppa flats at low tide, acres of mud. Before the river mouth changed location, this was all a prime harbor, making Newburyport a premier port of call and a mover and shaker in ship building . The first Clipper ship was built here. Many sailors called this home, and there is still a local word "Yeat!" People use to identify that they're from here. In the days of sail you would shout this after landing in a foreign port, anybody who answered was from back home, then you'd visit to catch up on the news . One of my high school teachers was in the Navy in WWII, he used it to find other guys from the area all over the Pacific Ocean. closer shot of the mouth of the Merrimack river . Ring's Island, Salisbury, MA, rowed from the boat ramp there for many years . http://duckworksmagazine.com/14/outings/rowing/#.XKdCGWkpA0M Story about some of my time on the water. dory in front of the coast guard station, the dory was developed for fishing in the mouth of the river without swamping, turned out to be able to go anywhere safely and carry a couple tons of fish. Memorial on the boardwalk in Newburyport old railroad bridge I wish they'd shut that fan off, way too much wind! High street bridge at March's hill
this rack doesn't need to be rebuilt, however , it's too close to the rack behind it, and I moved my scrap metal bin to make more room. of course I couldn't leave well enough alone, upgraded some parts to metal totes base pallets and leveled it up better metal bases are a few inches longer, which is always better. Center pallets in and secured Cutting the roofing so it drains off each side, the circular saw works great with the blade mounted backwards Roofing on, the piece on the end shows the extra length of the metal bases my kids stacking the latest splits almost a half cord, not much more to go and my racks will be full
Had some strong winds and rain over the weekend, lost a few shingles off the church roof. Turns out years ago a patch of shingles fell off, and water ran under the lower ones. The thick homosote insulation on the roof got wet and the nails they used rusted away. On top of that, the crew installing the shingles didn't peel the plastic off the tar strip under each shingle. It's always fun fixing the stuff other people did wrong, I find a lot of it in church properties ... my son peeling the plastic off the tar strip under each replacement shingle. those little tack looking things are the heads of 2" steel nails, they don't appear to have been galvanised ... Probably over 20 shingles got replaced or renailed
You don't have to remove that cellophane strip as it only effective while the shingles are in the bundle. Three days of sun on the top side and it deteriorates. Many of the tapes have "do not remove" imprinted right on the tape. The tape not only stops premature activation of the glue strip but keeps the glue clean. The "plastic" tape is an organic based cellulose film that deteriorates at the proper temperature(s). You don't have to remove the clear "plastic" window in an envelope when recycling paper as it is a cellulosic as well. It's basically paper - just clear paper. Cellophane can be composted. Unfortunately, not all cellulosics are "good" for the environment. Rayon has some pretty nasty chemicals added and used to make it . Rayon made from bamboo is often touted as made from eco-friendly bamboo, but that is BS. Although there are some newer processes for making rayon that are a little more eco-friendly.
I do this for a living and thats exactly right. When self sealing shingles were first developed probably in the 1960's they had a strip of foil that had to be manually removed, eventually it was a paper strip on back of the shingles and now its plastic or cellophane. That roof has a condensation issue from moisture being trapped under the shingles due to being improperly insulated. The nails are electro galvanized and will rust rather quickly versus the old hot dipped galvanized nails. Ive seen this happen many times
The city reservoir for Haverhill is in a park surrounded by carriage roads, it was a private estate owned by a mill owner. I like riding rough trails on my mountain bike, and my two oldest are finally strong enough to come with me. Around the back of the reservoir, we saw this beaver eating, completely unafraid even though we were only 10 feet away. Turns out they are noisy when they eat. This view is great, but I also hate it. I can't paddle on it because it's a water supply. It was a great ride inspite of the rain and humidity (better than this cold rain now) we tried to get pictures to show how muddy we got...
