Pajama Day

 No, that doesn't mean I spent all day in pjs. Actually I do that a fair amount. If I'm not going out... who cares.

But I did finish two new ones (I just do bottoms and use t-shirts on top). In previous pajama posts I've talked about sewing machines. Well, these were more of a project than usual because of the four sewing machines I own, three of them are not working, and I wasn't willing to try to get the other one going because it hasn't been used for at least 40 years. (It was my mother's.)

I had these about half done before my favorite machine gave out completely. So today I went to Cathy's and used her machine to finish them. Here you go.

Flowers and sharks! This is the third shark print I've found for pjs, which is awesome. It's also awesome that the previous set lasted 3 1/2 years- that included one round of patching. That's longer than usual.

I am going to need to get one of my machines repaired for sure. May need to save up a little. I checked all the easy things, so the fix is going to be major.

I was a little tired today. Seems the currently normal pattern with more energy every other day. So who knows what I'll do tomorrow?

See Pajama Day

The Project- Done!

 Here's how this began. When I returned home to a house that had been unoccupied for a month, the smell of mouse pee in my room was so strong I had trouble getting to sleep. OK, I may not clean as often as I should, but I do know how. So I emptied the room into the kitchen. You saw that mess.

When I got started cleaning, I realized that the walls were pretty dirty- not cleaning up well with washing. So... #1- Omer was still gone. #2- He had given me some money to buy myself something on my trip. However, I didn't find anything I wanted. #3- The room was already emptied. #4- Why not?

I went hunting for paint and curtain fabric. There have never been curtains in that room. However, the only place left locally to buy fabric is WalMart. They didn't have anything I wanted. Then I remembered that I had bought fabric that I really liked for curtains when I was still in Ann Arbor (grad school), but then I gave up my room there. I actually found it without too big a fight, and there was enough.

Back to the store for a shade of yellow paint that I liked to go with the fabric.

Meanwhile, cleaning, cleaning, cleaning.

You saw the curtain brackets the other day. The rods are just a fun little personalization. The long one is a hiking stick made from a dowel that I was given for speaking to a club long ago. The shorter one is the hiking stick that I used on the entire first NCT hike. Its name is "Chickenspit." It began life as a spit for a chicken way back in 1993, before Marie and I did our first big NCT hike. Marie, David, puppy Chips and I camped and hiked for a week at Apple River Canyon in Illinois (near where I was working that summer). David and I love playing with fires, so we roasted a chicken, and the spit became my walking stick. I retired it after that hike when it finally developed a split. But I think finding its fourth use (tree branch, spit, hiking stick, curtain rod) is a perfect role for its retirement years.

Another fix is that I'm attempting to make a home for the everpresent pile of current clothes. We'll see if I can be disciplined enough to hang them on hooks.

I repaired several other things as well. Had to wait for the curtain rings to arrive before I could finish that job, and then the sewing machine has joined the list of things that needs work. But I got it to hang in there to do this.

Now the room smells faintly of Murphy's Oil Soap (a huge improvement), and it makes me happy when I look at the walls. I have a bunch of silly memorabilia that means nothing to anyone except me. Rocks from paddling trips, beach glass, my blue bottles, a few cute plaques, and a few awards, my dad's tie rack...

Omer came home today. So, the kitchen was cleaned up before he got here, and tomorrow I will move on to spending some time on one of the many projects that I should be doing.

Oh yeah, I've caught seven mice since I got home.

See One Little Piece

Breaking the Rules

  We had a non-traditional Thanksgiving today, and that was just fine. The trailer table is still on sawhorses in the kitchen and it made a lovely table. We had dinners delivered by Radiant Church. We got an apple pie from the Reformed Church and a pumpkin pie from Meijer. Omer bought a large tub of "super-food salad" from Meijer for me. It was perfect. Joshua joined us for the meal.

After that we had a Skype call with Steve. Can you believe I didn't hit print screen? Bummer. But we had a nice chat with him. He hasn't been here for 2 years. And he doesn't like to talk, so this was a real treat.

We also ended up having a discussion of how often we "break the rules" for Thanksgiving. Thanks to the blog, I was able to look back on a lot of years. Just for the record, last year I did cook. We have done take-out a couple of times. It looks like the last year I cleaned the dining room and fixed a classic turkey was 2013. That's OK too. I did fix a turkey for Christmas dinner at the newspaper one of the years I worked there.

I do get to cross off a big item. The last time Steve was here, he requested that I make him some cloth shopping bags. Procrastinator that I am, they are just getting done. I wanted to ask him one question before finishing them, and I did that during our call. Now there are 2 of these, ready to send. I suppose I shouldn't cross it off until they are in the mail, but I can add "mail the bags" to the list of small items.

And I get to have pie for breakfast again tomorrow. We "broke the rules" this morning and cut the pies before the main meal so we could have pie for breakfast today too! After all... who made the rule that you can't eat the pie early? (Probably I did, back when it would have been completely gone before the real meal.)

In other news: I worked on that final difficult project in the trailer a little bit, but mostly I sewed. Steve's bags were a BIG ITEM, and I did one other small one. 14 BIG ITEMS to complete or drop (48 done). Tons of small ones to do (59 done). 5 days to go.

Now, it's back to the sewing machine for me.

See Thanksgiving Threesome

Piping with Monica

  Today's primary focus was to make a start on the trailer cushions. We also managed to do some other things too. No we weren't doing plumbing, or playing the hornpipe, or even a tin whistle. We started by making the piping trim for the cushion edges.

Somehow, I found this hilarious. Monica was pressing open the seams on the tape we'd just made, and as soon as there was a long enough tail to reach the machine, I started sewing the bias tape around the cord at the sewing machine.

End result: 43 yards of piping for the cushions nicely coiled in this basket, ready for use.

We also got 4 of the 8 zippers for the cushions done, added 2 coats of polyurethane to the plywood in the kitchen (just one more to go before bed tonight- I did one this morning as soon as I got up), sorted the backpacking food into tubs by location (One tub that goes in the trailer right away, one that Sue brings in March, and one that will somehow go west with me later- and we also found and had to fix a counting error I had made), transferred a volunteer project to Monica's keeping (so I get to cross off a BIG ITEM), and discussed some other trail logistics. Oh... and made a decision about something in the trailer kitchen. I think we made some great progress! I get to cross off a couple of small items, but I had to add a few more.

Now 24 BIG ITEMS to complete- (38 done). 42 small ones to do (34 done). 16 days to go.

Oh! And this happened- first snow.

See Almost Food

Pajama Day!

  My definition of pajama day may differ from yours. I did not get to lounge around all day, but I did make 2 new pairs of pj pants for me. The ones I made 3 years ago are definitely worn out. Even the patches have worn out on one of them. Now I have 2 new ones. Sharks and turtles.

THe sky was beautiful late afternoon after the rain stopped.

In other news: I edited. I made the pajamas and put a zipper in my sleeping system quilt that I don't like so that it's now a sleeping bag. I'll need to sleep outside some night to test the improvement level. Another big sewing project is that I'm trying to make some custom underwear. Prototype 1 (yesterday) isn't great. Prototype 2 (today) is better. Big List is up to 73 items with 23 crossed off, leaving 50 to go in 53 days. This is not progressing in the desired direction, but I know there are more things that will have to go on that list. I just hope I don't think of too many more really BIG ones. Plugging away.

See Sewing and Breathing

My Trailer Redo - Days 107, 114 - Cushion Fun

 
The subtitle of this is The Packrat Chronicles: Volume Umpety-Eleven.

I was going to wait and show you this at the very end, but it's the main thing I did today, so I'll 'fess up. Now don't get too excited. These are not finished at all. I don't have the new foam yet. The sizes of the cushions will be longer than the current ones, and there are a couple of other little decisions to make too.

But, what I did was piece together enough fabric (from old blue jeans I've saved for years) to make the tops. Then I just safety pinned them over the old covers which I detest.



This will not be ideal, but it will allow me to make a couple of decisions. For one thing the denim may be too stretchy without a stabilizer backing fused on.

The other thing is that with the factory trailer design, the back cushion has to be scrunched around the corner when upright. This is because it has to be the same length as the straight edge of the seat cushion so you can make the bed. You can see that this doesn't look great. The busy-ness of the plaid on the old cushions sort of hid the wrinkles.



But there are other options. I could do the cushions in sections which velcro together. I could do the cushions in sections with fabric "hinges." I could leave it like this and velcro it to the wall- it sure doesn't like to stay in this position.

Anyway, this looks nicer than the old covers even with the safety pins, and it will let me check out how it will work.

The very high humidity slowed everything else down today. It sure slowed me down! But it also increased the drying time for all the projects I was trying to do. The glue on the last block of wood on the back wall wouldn't dry. I had to wait till mid-afternoon before I could remove the brace under it. And that meant I couldn't be rocking the trailer doing other things, because that block would just slip off the brace and slide down the wall!

I started to fiberglass the side blocks in, and I did get that done, but I had to wait a long time between steps because it also didn't want to dry. Finally I was able to start the middle set, and I have one more batch of resin to mix and put on. I'm going to do that yet tonight so the back wall will be ready for the next step tomorrow.

It's supposed to rain in the night. I sure hope so.

See And Some of the Trimmings

My Experience with the Enlightened Equipment Revelation Sleep System

 
I promised you my opinion of the Enlightened Equipment Revelation Sleep System. The bottom line is that I'm not happy, but I hope I can fix it without adding much weight, because when you consider the cost, weight and temperature rating, it's the only good choice.

The first picture is from right after I got it. It shows the basics. This is basically a quilt, which is what all the manufacturers are pushing now. The narrow end (top of the pic) is the foot box (which you can open out to be perfectly flat), and the head end is at the bottom of the picture. The corner of my orange sleeping mat (3/4 length) is sticking out, and the blanket underneath it was just to keep it from snagging on the deck flooring while I showed it to you.



I got the medium length (so I can pull it over my head), rated to 20 degree quilt. Here's the deal. I've now slept with it several night in temps that were in the 40s. Fall of 2018, I thought I just hadn't figured out how to make it work for me. Now I've decided that it just has issues that need fixing.

This past Thursday night it got down to 42. I checked my new thermometer against a known one, and they agree. Maybe not to the tenth of a degree, but close enough. This is a bag that's rated to 20. Now, I totally understand that only means you won't die at 20 degrees. But hey, 42 is quite a bit warmer than 20, and I should have been able to keep warm.

Keep in mind that I also bought a cotton-silk blend liner to go with this bag. If I didn't have the liner I would have been really cold. And I am a warm sleeper. I even had on a long-sleeved thermal underwear top. Almost unheard of for me to need that at night. I usually need less covering than almost anyone else. This is not acceptable.

The issue is that quilts are drafty and I wiggle a lot. If I can keep completely covered, the bag keeps me warm. But every single time I move something shifts and a spot gets cold. And I can't seem to keep my feet in the foot box. When I curl up the bag doesn't come with me, I just slide out of the foot box. Sliding back in while asleep doesn't happen.

This is just not workable. For starters, to consider options, I clipped the strap clips together (without the straps) to sort of close up the quilt to see if it's big enough to actually turn it into a bag. I do like that the straps keep the quilt, and me, on the sleeping pad, and I'll lose that feature if I put in a zipper, but I think it has to be done.

This next picture is goofy, but it is taken the length of my body (in my shark pjs!) with the clips clipped. I let the bag gap just to show how it doesn't really close up even if you want to use it as a bag. I'm small enough that I can turn it into a true bag with a nylon coil zipper.


That will add a couple of ounces, and maybe I need to put on a draft baffle too. But if a couple of ounces will keep me warm, it will be worth it.

The other thing that is poorly designed on this is that the top drawstring pulls up right in the middle of the top edge. In other words, if you have the opening under you (as you do when you are using it the way it's designed as a quilt) the cord is right in your face. What the heck?

It is taking me a while to get used to the fact that you basically feel no weight of the covering at all. Turns out that I guess I like having the feel of something over me. But I'm adjusting to that.

I'm happy to tell you that my attached pillow idea worked great. Stay tuned. I'm ordering a zipper.

Another option to increase the warmth is that on longer trips I carry a small nylon tarp. On nights that it's cold and I don't have the tarp deployed, I could wrap it around myself to add another layer without compressing the down. It I add a couple of spots of velcro I can turn it into a tube so it doesn't unwrap.

In other news: I worked on projects in the morning, some author promo stuff in the afternoon, and went grocery shopping which I don't like doing even when the world isn't nuts. But I wore a mask like a good little sheeple and got enough stuff for another 10 days or so. Wish Goodwill were open so I could get a couple of really cheap jigsaw puzzles. Can't really buy more new ones! But I have several I'm willing to do again, I think. Just have to find them.

	See New Gear- Sleeping System See the pillow fix
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Earth Day and Birthday Shenanigans

 
For starters, this was the scene this morning. OK, it didn't last, but snow is getting a little old. I do remember snow on my birthday a few times in my life.



It's Earth Day! I remember the very first one. Somewhere, I have a patch of the flag that was designed 50 years ago. It got separated from my patch collection somewhere along the line. I hope it eventually resurfaces. It looks like this one.



It's almost my Birthday! The big news of the day is that tomorrow and Friday are supposed to be fairly nice. Since Friday is my birthday, and I've gone on a hike for as many of my birthdays as I could manage since about 1990, I'm heading for the woods. All the gear had to be checked. That takes just as long for an overnight as it does for a two-week trip. And I wanted to do at least one tweak.

Last time I saw Marie, she had just purchased a new sleeping pad. She let me try it, because she likes it a lot. I don't care for it very much, but what it did have was an attached pillow. Now that feature caught my attention. I've always used my sweatshirt for a pillow, but it isn't too satisfactory because it slides away or unfolds and gets too flat. So, I designed a solution. I made a little pillowcase that attaches to my pad.



My new sweatshirt/ jacket slips inside it, and two spots of velcro hold it to back of the pad. I think I'm going to like this a lot. My very first concession to getting older was to start using a sleeping mat. My hip bones were getting sore. And you really need one when camping in the cold, for insulation. I'm calling this pillow fix my next concession to my age. My neck does not like it if it doesn't have just a little bit of pillow- it doesn't need much, but when I'm camping and the "pillow" disappears and my head thumps down even lower than the surface of the mat, I end up with a stiff neck. I think I'm going to like this.



Then I had to rustle up enough food for two days on the trail. No big deal, and I managed it without a trip to the store. Packed up Teeny, and weighed in. Total weight with food, water and everything is 24 pounds. That is great! Of course, the more days you add to a trip, the more food weight there will be to start with. But this is very manageable.

I could have chosen a better background, but there was too much light when I tried to do it with the view off the deck in the background, so you get what you get. (Taken with timer.) It looks like the load is poorly balanced, but it feels fine and the weight is on my hips (those pants come up really high). These newer lightweight packs just don't have much shape to them. And I've got my jackets stuffed in the back pocket so it sticks way out but there's hardly any weight there.

I'm heading out in the morning, and won't be home till Friday afternoon. Not a big deal, just one overnight. But it's likely there won't be a blog post tomorrow. I also placed an order with Amazon. Mostly some stuff for around home, but two backpacking items that will add a little weight, but lots of functionality if they work.

See you!

See A Test Along the Manistee

True Blue Gumby II and Gear Ready

 
Ta-da! Here is True Blue Gumby II.

This was after I did that really tricky taped seam.



This is the pocket assembly.



Best of all, this is Gumby I in its bags and Gumby II in its bags. Old Gumby weighed 14.9 ounces. Not bad. New Gumby weighs 8.9 ounces! Even better.



Now to get the pack packed. Here is all my gear, except the sleeping bag which is already packed, and the food. Wanted to get this posted. Have to get it all put together and weighed. That's the scary part. Remember this is for 8 days without resupply (then 9 days after that).



Edit later: Total with food and water is 39 pounds. I was hoping for 38, so I'm close. After I eat one day's food that's where it will be, and then will go down by a little over a pound a day until re-supply.

There is no other news except a few errands. 100% day of hike prep.

	See Packing for Fife Lake hike
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Last Training Hike and Gumby Progress

 
Cathy and I took the last of my training hikes today. Focus was miles rather than weight. We went to the North Country Trail and did 8.2 miles. Including two breaks, we were out for 2 hours and 29 minutes. So that was a pretty good pace.

We went through the Sterling Marsh section from 76th St to 96th St and back. Plenty of mosquitoes today! They kept us moving.



We saw a tree covered with Chicken Mushroom,




I was hoping to get the Gumby II jacket done today, but it goes slowly because it's a fairly complicated design and I have to figure out the order of each step and exactly how to do it. But I wouldn't want you to think I wasn't actually making this!

This is an odd looking piece! It's half the hood with one of the front zipper panels.



It assembled nicely.


Here are the sleeves and body except for the front pocket panel.



Next up, I have to attach the hood to the body. The seam is continuous and taped. (For an inexpensive rain suit Gumby sure was made well.) I was just trying to figure out which surfaces go together first and how the bias tape is incorporated into that when Cathy came for our walk.

I should finish this tonight, but it's not going to happen. I'll just have to move into high gear tomorrow.

In other news: I got the kitchen mess pretty well cleaned up! Hike 100 is at 77 miles

North Country Trail, 8.2 miles, Lake County 76th St to 96th and back

	See Half of Gumby Turns Blue
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New Gear - Half of Gumby Turns Blue

 
You might recall, back in April, I did a long post about how I was going to replace my Gumby suit (rain suit). Well, that got as far as needing zippers (which was immediately), and then it stalled because we don't have a fabric store except Wal-Mart any more.

I finally found zippers in May, but have I done anything about it? Of course not. I'd rather wait till the last week before a hike. The easy half is done.

The old suit was spruce green with purple trim. I have some green ripstop, so I decided the new one would be blue with green trim.

The only thing I didn't do quite right is that the back pocket is just a little too high, but it doesn't really matter all that much.



I did shorten the legs so they don't drag on the ground.

In other news: I worked at cleaning up the kitchen, and did errands. It took me a while to get the sewing set up and all the things collected that I needed. For someone who used to sew all the time (see Sewing and Breathing), I sure don't have my sewing supplies act together any more.

Onward to the jacket. I have to take the old one apart to make a pattern. It's almost like an old friend (a pretty much dead one), but I HAVE to cut it up. Sigh.

	See The Death of Gumby?
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A Day in the City

 
Today was a mixed bag of activities. We started by helping Marleen pack boxes because she is moving to a different house next week. We filled two cars with things she wanted to carry herself (instead of the movers) and took them to the new location. Then we went out to eat at a restaurant called City Hardware.



They had some interesting lunch items. Marleen had a fried green tomato BLT with applewood smoked bacon. Loretta had catfish and shrimp, and I had a Mediterranean flatbread sandwich with basil pesto. We were all QUITE happy with our selections.



On the way back to the car we passed this manikin in a window for an optometrist office (why?- I guess to show off some cool sunglasses). Anyway... I had to take a picture of the shirt.



What? You can't see what the design is? It's sharks! Sharks!



Then we went back to Marleen's and borrowed a ladder. We were going to do some more boxes, but somehow ended up going shopping... Oh- because Marleen wanted to buy a drill, and we needed to borrow it too. I also needed to get those zippers for the rain suit I started. So while I was in JoAnne's getting zippers, they went next door and both ended up buying shoes. I also ended up buying fabric for my next pair of pjs with sea turtles all over it. (I know I just made pajamas, but when I find fabric I like on sale-50% off and a 15% off coupon on the whole purchase, I just get it. The only place I can get fabric near home any more is Wal-Mart.) And I also bought a t-shirt that is very cool, and marked WAY down. (I also get cotton t-shirts when they are the right price and size with designs I like)



Then we went back to Loretta's and made use of the ladder to change a bunch of her light bulbs that had burned out. She saved some jobs for me to help her with while I was here that were hard to do alone. We have a couple more yet. The drill is charging, so there's hope for the next little job tomorrow.

After that, it was time to head back to church for game night with one of the small groups. We had sandwiches, played a trivia game and laughed a lot.



This was a much more "ordinary" day, but those are just as much fun when you are doing things with people you like.

	See The Death of Gumby?
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