Anonymous has left a new comment on your post “Surf Rack On Bike“:
Some cool bike trailers:
https://www.wicycle.com/cargo_buddy_bicycle_trailer.php
https://www.wicycle.com/cargo_suitcase_bicycle_trailer.php
http://www.wicycle.com/cargo_park_pioneer_bicycle_trailer.php
Stopped by to see my long-time friend Jack Fulton last week. Jack is by profession a photographer, also a builder. In the ’60s, Jack and I learned a lot about building from Jack’s uncle, Alec Fulton. A jovial Scotsman, Alec took the time to teach us novices. Among other things, he taught me how to join cast-iron drainpipes with hot lead (and oakum) — in the days just before ABS and PVC drain pipe replaced cast iron.
Anyway, Jack had just finished rebuilding the entire front wall of his house (termite damage, new continuous foundation), and these well-used hammers were lying around. The smaller has been my go-to tool belt hammer for many years. A Plumb 16″ with fiberglass handle. I like the straight, rather than a curved claw: better for de-nailing as well as digging in the dirt. Aesthetically, I like wooden handles, but the fiberglass has a bit of spring in it which is comfortable.
I’ve been using chainsaws for many years, have probably owned 5 or 6. These days it’s a Stihl Woodboss MS270, 24″ bar. Every year I pick up mostly wind-felled oak on country roads, haul it home, cut it into stove-size lengths, then rent a splitter for a day and stockpile a year’s or more worth of firewood. I used chainsaws extensively in the ’60s and ’70s, cutting up redwood (from the beaches or windfallen trees in the woods) into bolts, and which I then split into shakes. Point is, I’ve had a lot of chainsaw experience.
The other day I was sawing through a piece of wood on the woodpile and as I finished the cut, the blade hit a log below it and snapped back towards my face. It sent a chill of adrenaline that I felt somehow in my ears. Very scary.
I was wearing my Husqvarna helmet, which combines skull protection, ear guards, and a metal mesh facemask. (I’ve only been using the helmet the last few years, prompted by a log rolling down the hill and knocking me down — I should have had one of these helmets all along.)
This time the blade didn’t reach my face, but if it had, the mask would’ve stopped it from carving up flesh.
I urge you chain saw users: get one of these. $50 or so. Play it safe, please. The more hours you’ve operated chainsaws, the more the chance of a freak accident. Experience doesn’t make you invulnerable.
PS I always sharpen the teeth after use, so it’s ready when I next pick it up.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post “Bikesailing“:
And, how about this…
Don’t know anything about these, but seems like an idea which might become popular
https://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324328204578572011343756542.html?mod=trending_now_3
Some cool models: https://rollingorangebikes.com/
A quick look at Google images is pretty impressive: https://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1600&bih=805&q=cargo+bikes&oq=cargo+bikes&gs_l=img.3..0l7j0i5l3.1330.3718.0.3850.11.10.0.1.1.0.111.958.7j3.10.0….0…1ac.1.19.img.lFjMkGezT-Y
Small (Not Tiny) Homes
Living in the San Francisco Bay Area has become enormously expensive lately. Any great place nowadays — Manhattan, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Rome — rents are outta sight.
In recent years I’ve been driving around in some less-cachet local towns, like San Leandro, Richmond, Hayward and noticing all these small, simple houses. Some of the blocks look really nice.
If someone of modest means is looking to buy a home in the Bay Area, I’d say forget SF, Marin County, Berkeley, the Peninsula all the way down to San Jose. Look in these sort of overlooked towns. I used to think the same about Brisbane and El Cerrito, but it may be too late (at least In E.C.)
I bet anywhere in the US there are towns surrounding the hot spots with simple little houses like these. Maybe neighborhoods on the upsurge after crack houses and gangs have been chased out. Or just neglected neighborhoods. Former industrial areas.
Graffiti July 2013
I just love this kind of art.
I asked a local mechanic, who has helped me with my trailer lights, and disconnected the seat belt warning bells in my ’88 Toyota truck. “I can’t do it, it’s a computer,”he said. “These cars, they want to drive you.”
I believe in wearing a seat belt and I want to put it on when I fuckin want to and not be nagged by 6 — count ’em –6 bells. One-minute pause and 6 more bells. Sheee-it. Plus I don’t need to be hassled about leaving keys in car. Panicky continuous loud beep beep beep. (I’ve got spare key in magnetic box under car.)
Anyone know how to circumvent this audio bullying?
I seldom travel north on the coast in summertime. I prefer the dark and tourist-light winter. I like it up here. I’ve got roots: my dad used to fish the Gualala river in the early 1900s.
Lots of camping cyclists on the roads, most of them awkwardly, non-aerodynamically loaded down. (By contrast, check out Rick Huffan’s gear here (I photographed him up here last year).
Marin county is soft and gentle and as such, has a trace of the — dare I say it? — insipid. As I head north, the men and women seem tougher, stronger. Life is tougher (colder, wetter) the farther north you go, and people have to deal with that. It’s more country. On radio, going down a country road yesterday, Merle: “I’ve got everything I need to drive me crazy…” Some times when I’m on the road: the music, road, trees, sky, the moving through space — it’s a movie!
Been swimming in the river each day. Yesterday Louie helped me in making a fur coat out of my animal skins: 2 bobcats, 3 foxes, a raccoon, we’re still undecided about the skunk. His grandfather had been a tailor, so he knew what to do. I put on an old vest, we got the skins in place, then pinned to the vest. Next we’ll get Lesley’s experienced input. It really looks good. Fur (and heads) on the outside. Going to take a while. I’ll only wear it at home.
Pic is my hideout at Louie’s.
They are thick on this part of the coast this week. Apparently the krill are here, the bait fish eating them, and the salmon eating the bait fish. These guys had just brought in maybe 35 fish, in the 15-25 lb. range. A friend of Louie’s had caught over 50 a few days earlier. What a start to the commercial season! I learned a lot watching these fishermen cleaning salmon. They were taking them to a jobber in Fort Bragg. Getting $5/lb. whole (gutted) fish.
I asked one guy why he thought they were back, he said maybe because they had the season closed for four years. I said what about all the work done on the rivers in recent years, he said I don’t know, but God has just put these fish out in the ocean this year.
Louie and I had barbecued salmon with Titsch and Rosario last night. It’s so different when eaten the day of catch!
It occurred to me last night that it’s going to get pretty repetitious for me to call all these short posts “Daily Flash.” “Daily Flash #146…”
So I’ll keep up with shorter more frequent posts, and they will be daily flashes, but I won’t title every one that way.