Challenging

One of the blogs I read regularly mentioned that Blogger had a new blog development format so I decided I'd give it a try. Like anything new, I'm not sure yet...

It looks like this is going to be one of those years. With the exception of the year that BJ's back was a major issue, we've traveled every summer for the past 10 years or so. This year is going to be a bit of a challenge to see if I can check out some back roads while avoiding people.

Over a year ago, I noticed a challenge cache in Utah (GC2375Q) that requires you to find a cache in every Utah county as well as every county that borders Utah. I'm only missing 3 counties in Utah, one in Nevada, and a couple handfuls in the NE corner. Like most projects, it's grown more complex. I'm only short 4 counties to "black out" Nevada. Harney County, Oregon is the only SE Oregon county I'm missing... It leads one to wonder how far could I go?

While I have a plan, it's hard to say how this will turn out. It's dependent on boondocking locations with manageable temperatures and state guidelines with enough flexibility to allow solo travel.

I've figured out a way to get a bit of circulation if I'm sleeping in the car, and I'm taking my Hennessy Hammock along for those times I might have an appropriate tree to hold one end.

The car has a fresh oil change and is loaded with food and drink and all the other supplies and equipment needed to avoid people while enjoying some lonely roads. Should be fun. We'll see how far I get. 

Avoiding Idle Hands

With the Governor continuing to encourage us to stay home, my idle hands continued gravitating towards the garage. With the kitchen for the Subie done, it was time to start creating future smiles.

As is typically the case for my gadget caches, I started with Baltic birch plywood to build the boxes.

Yes, that was boxes - plural. It's always more challenging to build several different caches at the same time. There's some process advantage, but since I'm too lazy to draw up designs, there's a lot more thinking time to keep the details separate.

I've used baltic birch with a seal coat of epoxy since I started building gadget caches 4 1/2 years ago. I've discovered the limits of that construction tends to be 3 to 4 years in our climate, so 18 months ago I started adding a layer of 4 oz fiberglass cloth on the exterior of the boxes. I figure that will add at least an extra year, even if I don't do any other maintenance.

The glass cloth should be just enough extra strength to eliminate (I hope) the weather checking that starts around year three.

This one is a design that I've had on my list to do for a couple years. The conceptual test had worked well, and I've had the bits and pieces in stock for a long time.

Turns out, the conceptual test was inadaquate. My design tolerances were tight enough that when fully loaded there was too much friction. I thought it might have been a high maintenance cache, so I took a detour and created a totally different design with the container.

This is another partially formed idea that had bounced around in my head for at least a year, but recently another cacher provided some input that allowed this one to see the light of day. It's reprentative of how I sometimes feel these days - a bit unhinged.

If that weren't enough, I got a bit wired on this one. We'll see if it makes people light up.

There's more to this one but you'll have to find it to find out.

All of these are designed to mount on 4" parking lot light poles. They seem to be safer there than hanging in trees out in the forest.

Cachers (including me) talk disparagingly of lamp post caches aka LPCs, but I doubt these will fall into that same category. Now all I have to do is convince the right property owners to host one of these on their lamp posts.

My anticipated road trip for August has cancelled for this year since it involved large international gatherings. I'm hoping things open up enough that we can go wander some back roads.

Time for a Kitchen

Our shirt-tail relatives at Glory Farm are building a kitchen this year. In an effort to keep up, I decided to take my woodbutcher skills to the garage and build a kitchen also. Of course, my kitchen is going to be a bit smaller...

Sometimes, I like to do fine finish woodworking. In this case, toughness trumps looks. No fancy joinery, just pin nails to hold it while the Gorilla Glue dries on the fancy two level structure.

The top section will have a flip top and a divider to separate the heavy stuff from the easily crushed, perhaps more important stuff like cookies and chips.

The only reason I used walnut for the doublers was because I had a left over piece in the scrap pile. Since I rarely draw any plans for my projects, it was less exciting to build the drawer after I had the cabinet constructed.

The drawer is divided like the upper section and is notched for a flat removable cover over one half of the drawer.

I'm kind of wishing I'd used oil based varnish for that golden glow instead of the water based (and water clear) version that leaves the cabinet looking pale.

Looks like these two pictures are out of order. Had to make sure the drawer fit before putting in the divider!

The drawer rides on full extension, heavy duty slides. The flip up top opens and jams nicely against the upper door frame when it's almost vertical. Sometimes you get lucky!

The shelf on the left rides on the shock tower at the forward end and an angled brace at the back. It will fit a 20 liter jerry can if I can find one with the vent in a better location. The unit is just long enough that the drawer pull clears the back door by 1/4 inch. No chance of the drawer opening by mistake!

With my kitchen done, here's hoping I get to use it this summer!