Boat Building – A New Quest

Several days ago, I came across the blog of Carl (aka Clipper) which can be found here, that is portraying his experience at building the Glen-L Vera Cruise.  I was immediately immersed and instantly hooked in the details of his multiple year journey as he builds his future boat from scratch.  Additionally, his decision to do it out of wood (as opposed to fiberglass or metal) had my interest peaked as woodworking is one of my favorite hobbies; that, combined with my current proximity to the Puget Sound (3 minute walk), and the beauty of what Carl is creating, has made me want to embark upon my own quest to build a boat from scratch.

Above, you’ll notice a stock photo of the boat that, at least for now, is the boat that I would like to build.  I imagine a number of things might change between now and when I start, but from what I know now, which is admittedly not much, this particular boat fits my current and future needs.  The plan design is called the LazyDaze, it is a 23′ trailer-able powerboat that can sleep up to 4 (future kids).  You’ll be able to see more photo’s and details at the link just above.  I can’t wait until I get to a point where starting is the next step. 🙂

Now, admittedly, I have a lot of weird idea’s throughout my life that don’t always come to anything, mostly due to a lack of funds, but partly due to my personality and many passing fancies.  For example, the day before I found the boat building stuff, I spent several hours researching the process of putting in a small hydro power unit to assist in power generation for my house from the creek behind it.  Now, as much as I would love to do this, the supporting infrastructure is not only very similar to, but can piggy back off of that of a solar panel system, so that’ll have to come first and isn’t something I’ll do myself.  This was one of many different thoughts, ideas, and projects that I’d love to be able to do.  However, none of them have excited me as much or as quickly as the idea of a 3+ year boat build done incrementally.  Who knows, maybe it’ll take so long that I’ll get to finish it with my kids’ help, kids that I don’t even have yet. 🙂

I’ll continue to post thoughts and ideas here, if I get to a point where I’m posting things such as Carl is doing with his Vera Cruise, aka Some Other Time, I might make a separate blog for it.  Otherwise, keep checking back.

Happy Reading!!

Sean 

Bremerton Ferry Bicyclists

Each morning, I drive my wife from Port Orchard to the Bremerton Ferry terminal so that she can go to work. We almost always arrive between 6:55 and 7:05 for her to catch the 7:20 ferry to Seattle.  There is a one lane, one way street that is utilized for dropping people off; (it also has temporary free street parking and a few bars for if you’re early) typically, its smooth going, people will stop, quickly get out of their cars, and then the car will move on.  The problem I have with all of this happens to be with the bicyclists that are disembarking from the ferry.  They seem to think that, as a group of 15-25 cyclists, they have the right to ride the wrong way down that one way street with no regard to the cars that might be driving the opposite direction.   In fact, even if you slow down so that you don’t hit them, they don’t get out of your way, they just continue on; and the guys following the first one, do the exact same thing.  Most vehicles are stuck waiting for the entire train of cyclists to pass before we can drive down the street because otherwise we would run over not one, but several of these inconsiderate pricks.

Eco-Friendly Children’s Toys

Eco-Friendly Children’s Toys

Are you sick of finding out (well after purchase/consumption/heavy use) that the product you’re using, eating, or your kids are playing with contains some harmful/dangerous product or ingredient.  Recently, my wife and I read that Subway has been including a controversial dough conditioner, Azodicarbonamide, that is commonly used in the manufacture of plastic goods and has been banned from all food in Great Britain and is regulated by the FDA.  We find ourselves asking, since they can take it out so easily once it was brought to the public’s attention, why was it there in the first place?  And then there was the Lead and Cadmium found in abundance in kid’s toys in 2007 and 2010 respectively.  These ingredients cause(d) brain damage to kid’s.  How many lives were ruined before someone with the money and capability is able to do the testing required to prove it?

What I’m getting at is that my wife and I have opened up a store selling environmentally safe and conscious, eco-friendly, hand made toys.  Our primary product is currently cork alphabet blocks available naturally without any finish, with an all organic jojoba oil & beeswax finish, and with an all natural, no VOC’s, soy paint.  We are working on expanding our product line to include bamboo blocks as well as rolling vehicles and animals.

Our primary goal is to provide parents and kids with responsibly sourced, guaranteed safe, toys that they can learn from and grow up with.  All of our sales are being handled through Etsy, the link above will direct you to our Etsy store, or you can search for our store name, Grrounded.

Please visit our store and share it with anyone that has kids or would be interested.

Happy Reading!

Sean

Seattle’s Bagel Shortage

I didn’t become enlightened to the delightful taste and texture of bagel’s until I met my wife.  Specifically, the salty garlic flavor of an everything bagel with onion and chive cream cheese.  When we lived in Baltimore, with an admittedly large Jewish population, we had no shortage of both chains and locally owned places that had a plethora of deliciously fresh bagels available every day.  Flavors ranging from the deliciously sweet cinnamon crunch bagels from Panera (with their Honey walnut cream cheese) to the spicy and savory jalapeno cheddar bagels (as a breakfast sandwich) or my personal favorite, the aforementioned everything bagel.  If you wanted a bagel, you could always find just the one you wanted whenever you wanted it.  Additionally, before we moved, we experimented a lot with homemade bread, including our very own fresh baked everything bagels.  Recipe can be found here.

Then we moved to Port Orchard (outside of Seattle) not even thinking that there would be a place where bagel’s, at the very least the chains, would be inaccessible; and low and behold, nothing………  The closest thing we’ve found is a solitary Einstein Bro’s in the northern parts of Seattle, well outside our Saturday morning range of “what to do for breakfast”.

After three weeks of posturing (telling my wife I’d make bagels, and then not… ), I finally got off my ass long enough to make the sponge; from there, it was easy to stay motivated enough to finish them.  They do take a good deal of time, but as with most breads, a lot of this is down time.  You make the sponge first, which consists of flower, water, and yeast, and then let it sit for 2 hours.  After that, you finish making the dough, kneading it for 8 minutes (by hand due to the fact that our 5 quart Kitchen Aid couldn’t handle the stiffness of the dough) and working in another 3/4 cup of flower, then cut and shape into rolls.  Rest for 20, poke holes and shape into bagels, rest for another 20, then you’re ready to put them in the fridge overnight.  (The recipe says overnight, a couple of hours will work if you’re impatient like we are) As with pretzels, you boil bagels in a baking soda water mixtures prior to baking.  This is easiest to do with 2 people, since you’re boiling in stages (3 at a time) and they need to be seasoned right as they get out of the water, but isn’t terribly difficult with 1, it just takes more time.  Once in the oven, you have approximately 15 minutes to wait for tasty golden brown bagels.

This is the first time we’ve made bagels since we moved to Washington, and god did we miss good bagels.  We’ve tried the offerings from grocery stores, but they have a tendency to taste (feel) simply baked, and not boiled first.  (Boiling is what gives bagels and pretzels their signature chewiness and shiny exterior)  And obviously, nothing beats the joy of eating your own home cooking.

(Un)Fortunately, the few friends we’ve got in the area also seem to like (and miss) good bagels, so when we mention that we’re making bagels, they all want to “try” one.  Most of the time, I LOVE sharing the things we make; but, when it comes to bagels, it is always like pulling teeth to get me to give some away.  My wife and I have no problem going through a dozen bagels long before they go bad.  So this time I lost two teeth, my wife’s boss just recently went vegan, and apparently vegan cream cheese isn’t too bad, so since she can’t have cheese, she’s fallen in love with bagels, and she has one other coworker that loves bagels as well……hence, the two teeth.. 🙂  They better enjoy them as much as we do…

Anyways, I know this was a bit of a ramble, but I was in the process of eating a bagel for breakfast when I started, and the excitement was fresh.

Happy Reading,

Sean

Mmmm, Simple Homemade Chinese Dinner

Do many of you have the “problem” of when you cook that your entire house smells like what you just cooked?  We’ve noticed more so in our new house than in our previous house, that the forced air system (we didn’t have one previously) has a tendency to spread the aroma of whatever we’re cooking EVERYWHERE…    Lately, I’ve had a propensity to do pan fried chicken. (we’ve had it a couple times a week as it gives a great base for a white wine mushroom cream sauce and allows variation pretty simply) The problem with this, is that for the next day, our house smells like fried food.  Not so bad at first, but when you wake up the next morning still smelling like old oil, it gets to a point where it just smells gross.

Fortunately, last night I went a different direction.  Having marinated a couple of boneless chicken breasts in a little bit of left over spicy szechuan stir fry sauce as well as some soy sauce, I decided to bake those in the oven.  Additionally, I decided rice would be our side dish.  We use Rice Select Texmati rice typically and cook it exactly as the directions say.  The rice smells sooo delicious, and to make it better, I added several drops of sesame oil, toasted some sesame seeds, and scrambled a couple eggs.  The oil is added during the cooking process, but the seeds and eggs get added at the end.

Suffice it to say, the whole house smelled like that rice, and it was fantastic.  Waking up to what smells like sesame popcorn was a delight. 🙂  Anyways, it was a very simple, very easy, very good weeknight recipe.

Happy Reading,

Sean

Leather Arrow Quiver

So a couple weeks ago I built this quiver for a friend of mine for his birthday.  During the process I did a build along write up at a couple of archery sites that I frequent.  To keep from having to rewrite and re-post all of the pictures, I’m just going to link the site where I did the build along.  Click here to visit the site.  (Don’t worry, it’s safe!)  I also just realized that I didn’t ever post finished product pictures to that site, so you can get those here.

                           

                 

Let me know what you think!

Happy Reading!

Sean

Hated Drywall Repair / Texture

I hate drywall.  If I had the money to pay someone to come repair my cracked wall/ceiling joint, I would do it.  I not only hate drywall jobs, but I’m also bad at it.  And, more importantly, I don’t seem to be getting any better at it.  I’ve been doing random drywall jobs off and on since I helped my dad redo a bathroom in 2005, including completely redoing my own bathroom in 2013.  I don’t believe that in all that time and effort, I have gotten any better at it.

Currently, I’m working on repairing settlement cracks in the ceiling/wall joint of our great room prior to painting and I vowed that I would take as much time and as many layers of mud as it took to make it look right.  Fortunately, my end goal was aided by the fact that we have orange peel textured walls and ceilings that cover up minor inabilities in the mud job.  It still took me 5 or 6 applications over the course of 2 weeks to get it to an acceptable state.  Useful Hint: Instead of sanding between applications of mud, instead use a wet rag to smooth the previous application.  This reduces the dust significantly as well as leaves the painted wall beneath in its (relatively) original condition.  IE: if you have a textured wall, the wet rag will leave that texture in place; whereas, sanding it destroys any existing texture.  The wet rag process saved me at least 1 if not 2 applications of mud, it also allowed me to smooth through a curved outside corner that a sanding sponge would have destroyed.

The orange peel texture was a lot easier than I originally thought.  Due to the fact that it was such a small area, we were able to buy one of the can’s to do it, and not having painted it yet, I’d say it looks pretty darn good.  (I’m sure I’ll post again if it turns out terrible once we paint it)

There are no pictures due to the fact that our great room lacks sufficient light to begin with, and since were in the middle of prepping for painting, two of the too few lights have already been removed….  So the pictures I took sucked, and didn’t let you see anything at all other than a white blob on a red wall.

So all in all, I’m pretty happy with how it turned out, but I still don’t feel like I’ve gotten any better at mudding drywall joints, I just had the luxury of time and patience to do as many coats as was necessary to make it look right.  (I did not have either of those things when I was redoing the bathroom in our old house)

Happy Reading,

Sean

Hello!!!

I have never professed to be a writer, nor have I ever had an extraordinary desire to start writing, but with some pretty massive changes in my life lately, I find myself in need of an intellectual output.  So, on that note, I decided to start writing about my life.  

My site title is currently a listing of ideas that currently occupy my time: “Family, DIY home owner, custom creations, and cooking.”  Obviously, this can encompass a wide range of topics for discussion, and was left intentionally vague for that reason.  I actually have no idea what I want to write about and will leave my direction vague until I find it.  

Today, I will give a description of my life so that future posts won’t need an exorbitant amount of explanation for comprehension.  

Family: My wife (Kate) and I are coming up on our 2nd anniversary. To celebrate this, we are utilizing airbnb.com to stay on a 55′ sailboat with our two dogs (Riley and Molly) where our stay includes a 2.5 hour sail.  Both Molly (Great Dane) and Riley (Chocolate Lab) will be joining us.  Molly is not too sure of the life jacket that we got for her and she looks utterly depressed when we put it on; Riley, on the other hand, does better putting the life jacket on than she does with a harness, which she literally runs away from despite her love of going for walks.  

Kate and I recently (Nov, 2013) moved to the Kitsap Peninsula (Western Washington) from Baltimore, MD where we purchased our forever home with the intent to eventually raise a family.  We have just over 2 acres of woods with a 5 minute walk to the Puget Sound.  Riley will be enamored with the water once it gets a little warmer.  I’ve never seen an older lab turn into a puppy as fast as Riley does in water. Always manages to warm my heart.  

As self proclaimed dog people, we still have the best cat (Auto) in the world…  Probably because she thinks she’s a dog the majority of the time, including play time and cuddle time with Molly.  She is the perfect amount of cuddly without the normal annoyances that typically come with a cat.

I imagine you will all read a number of posts about our animals as they are currently like our kids, and are spoiled as such.  

DIY Home Owner: First some important details you need to know about me: I HATE paying someone else to do a job that I am perfectly capable of doing. Particularly considering the cost of labor tends to allow me the freedom to squander all of the buildings materials once, and still come in with less cost than paying someone else to do it.  Unfortunately for my wife, this means that I always have a very lengthy list of things we want done or that we need that I intend to do or build myself.  

As of now, my accomplishments and abilities include: a full bathroom reno, including in-floor heat, new tub, tiled tub surround and floors, and moved plumbing. A sun room reno that required me to break up and remove tile from the 1920’s, remove and replace all the floor joists, run all new wiring for plugs, and flush mount a 55″ TV with no wires showing.  Both of those projects taught me a ton about the work I was doing and gave me a significant amount of experience.  Since then, we have sold that house and purchased a new one with a whole new list of projects that need to be done. 

Currently, our house is full on Mediterranean style, including more shades of yellow than I knew existed.  As much as we love our house, the style is not exactly in our taste, so we are working on redesigning our great room.  This will include painting the ceilings and walls (Someone felt the need to paint all of the ceilings in the house to match the walls of the rooms), installing an 8″ pine lap board with a Shou Sugi Ban treatment accent wall, new handmade vintage iron pipe lights, and a massive table pendant we have dubbed “fatty“.  Currently, we have tested out a few colors and decided on a palate; also, I have repaired some settling cracks in the drywall.  Attempting to paint with a Wagner paint sprayer is the next step once everything is masked.  I’m sure many posts will follow with details and frustrations of the many projects associated with this reno.  

Custom Creations: I hate paying for things that are both a lower quality than what I can build, and far more expensive than what I can build.  Again, my to-do list is always miles long.  My most successful project has been a dining room table that measures 8′ x 4′ and was made with reclaimed red oak and reclaimed T&G pine walls boards from a barn.  I also hand make stick bows, the style of which can be seen here.  My most important project currently is that I am making my wife’s anniversary present for her.  The chances of her coming across this are slim to none, but just in case, I’ll hold off with any additional information until after our anniversary.  

Cooking:  Both Kate and I love to cook.  I’d say she’s a much better Chef than I am.  What I mean by that is that she is significantly better at creating something from scratch.  At taking what we have and making a delicious meal out of it without much if any direction from a recipe.  Additionally, I can follow even the most difficult recipes and get them to turn out well.  I make souffles, beef wellington, bagels (as well as many other kinds of bread), napoleons with home made caramel, and caramel mousse, pizza dough, waffles, chiffon cupcakes, poached pears, and many delicious variations of fried chicken (Often paired with the waffles).  Additionally, I recently got given “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” Vol 1 & 2 for Christmas, so expect some more items to be coming out of there.  Although not too many, Julia Child is very heavy handed with the butter, and I’d personally like to live to see my 50’s.  

You all should now have a reasonable insight into my life and where all of the posts following this can come from.  If these posts should take a definitive turn in one direction or another, I’ll be sure to address it and change the title of my site.  

I hope you all enjoy reading what will follow.  

Sean