Here’s a quick update on how the garden is doing this year… of note are the 5′ high tomato plants growing in the center:

Tonight I started working on a way to mount my electric trolling motor to our canoe.

A long time ago when I had my sailboat, I had also gotten a 12v trolling motor to go along with it. Ever since I sold the sailboat, I’ve wanted to see about mounting it to the canoe. Well, I’ve finally come around to it, and after doing some quick research online I found a number of different ready-made mounts that you can buy, but seeing as how simple they seem in design, I figured I can build my own.

I did a really quick and dirty mockup of how I might be able to mount it:

It’s going to need a long piece of wood that runs the width of the canoe right behind where I sit, extending out about a foot, so that the motor’s mounting bracket can be attached to another piece that forms an L shape. I’m going to try and attach the mount to the gunwale with some sort of system that will allow me to easily put it on and take it off… maybe something like mini C-clamps.

I also realized that the motor is pretty substantial in weight. Originally I was going to mount the battery box in the stern where I sit. But because of the total weight of the motor, me and the battery, I’ll probably have to mount it toward the bow and possibly even shifted over to the left a bit, to counter the weight of the motor. Putting the battery up front will also help trim the canoe a little better, although I still may need to add some additional weight up there.

My CHECK ENGINE SOON light came on while driving into the office this morning. That made what was already going to be awful morning even better.

This light came on for me a few years back and at the time it had to do with a loose gas cap. That doesn’t seem to be the case this time around. On the way home I stopped at Autozone and had one of the techs read the ODB II computer for me. Turned up an error code of P0440, which according to his reader had to do with the Purge Valve that sits on top of the manifold.

I also checked the Avalanche forum to see what I could find, but so far only found one post about 440 being a generic code having to do with the emissions evaporative system that can include any one of these issues:

• Missing Fuel Cap
• Defective or damaged Fuel Cap
• Distorted or damaged Fuel Tank filler neck
• Torn or punctured Evaporative System hose(s)
• Defective Fuel Tank Sending Unit gasket or seal
• Split or damaged Carbon Canister
• Defective Evaporative Vent Valve and/or Evaporative Purge Valve
• Defective or damaged Fuel Tank
• Defective Fuel Tank Pressure Sensor

I think I’m going to start with the Purge Valve as a starting point, only because that’s what the AZ tech’s device said specifically.

The forum had a diagram of the part that helped me locate where under the manifold cover it’s located. (#3 in the picture below). So I went under the hood tonight to see how difficult/easy it will be to replace. It’s not too bad actually – It’s close to the front with two lines connected to it, one for the vapor pipe and the other for the solenoid. GMpartsdirect.com has it available so I’ll order the part and see about replacing it.

Spent an hour tonight screening some of the hummus that I get at the Lower Mac yard waste depot. It does wonders to break down the large chunks of soil and get rid of the unwanted small twigs, rocks, etc. The other benefit to screening seems to be that of aeration – I couldn’t believe how it made the soil so much looser. I made the screen last year and used chicken wire with 1/4″ spacing. Anything smaller and the screen would probably just clog. It’s sandwiched between a 12 x 16″ (apx.) 1×2″ frame that I made and fits nicely over a 16 gallon storage container, used to catch everything that’s screened.

This one isn’t mine, but it looks something like this:

The list of projects around the yard for this year was a bit long but I’ve slowly been chipping away at it…

Project #1: Dirt moving and a new paver walk-off
I started with moving a large mound of our garden bed adjacent to the back patio. It had been home to some kind of ivy -like growth for a few years that we really didn’t like, so I dug all that up and removed another shrub that just about was on its last leg. I spread most of the soil around the base of the Nishiki Willow tree to expand the bed there. I replaced the small layout of pavers that we originally had with a larger area about 4′ x 8′ in size. It’s now a lot easier to walk on and off the patio without getting slapped in the face by the branches of the tree, and it gave a nice home to our grill.

Project #2: Rock wall border around the front garden bed
Over the Easter weekend I collected up some of the Pennsylvania Bluestone that is abundant around the property my in-laws have up in Tioga, PA.  We already have a nice rock wall border around the garden beds that butt-up against the house. Here’s the area that didn’t:

The collection of stone that we hauled down from the mountain:

And the completed rock wall border:

Project #3: Paint the rain barrels
Last year I added a set of rain barrels to the back yard that stuck out like a sore thumb. I decided to paint them brown, to match the shed… and now they look like two big pieces of turd – at least that’s what the wife thinks. :-) I also built a better platform for them to rest on with some of the extra cedar I had in the garage.

Project #4: Join the two garden boxes
I had originally built two separate square foot garden boxes a few years ago. But this season I decided to combine them to form one large box. After dismantling the two facing sides and rejoining them, I have 44 square feet now available (which still may not be enough).

In this picture you can see the strawberries in the foreground are already off to a good start, and towards the back are my garlic shoots that I need to split.

Project #5: Re-mulch the garden beds
Every other year I replenish the beds with new mulch. This year it took two truckloads… and I still ended up running out.

Projects still on the to-do list:

• build a permanent fire pit
• build a series of smaller, portable garden boxes
• paint the trim on the shed
• fix the front door screen (the dog put a hole in it the other day)

I watched this over the past weekend. (I love Frontline btw – they have some really great documentaries).

http://video.pbs.org/video/1402987791/

What was most eye-opening about this piece, besides how swanky 2nd Life’s offices are, is how our various technologies that are supposed to make our lives easier and more connected with each other seem to be affecting the way our kids are learning and retain knowledge. The piece about the MIT students writing their papers one paragraph at a time for example was a bit alarming. We’ve made it so easy to get distracted by all the email, Twittering, and social networking… and these younger generations are fully engulfed by it. Even the multi-tasking that was talked about in the piece, and how all these kids claim that it’s not a problem, and that they’re more efficient. I multi task every day, at least in front of my laptop here. Quite frankly, it’s hard to do. Now maybe that’s because it’s something that I’ve had to learn over the years – unlike these kids who it’s sort of automatically engrained in, but there are things I’ve read over the past couple of years that are starting to say that people would be much better off if they focused on one thing at a time.

“My colleagues in the psychology department drew my attention to some interesting research, which proves that Buddhists and couch potatoes were right all along – the world would be a better place if everyone tried to do just one thing at a time. In a society that encourages more and more multitasking, researchers at Stanford University had assumed that people who do a lot of multitasking would be better at it. “But they’re not. They’re worse. They’re much worse,” said Clifford Nass, a professor at Stanford. “They couldn’t ignore stuff that doesn’t matter. They love stuff that doesn’t matter,” he said.”
– from http://openingtime.blogspot.com/2009/09/effectiveness-of-multi-tasking.html

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/august24/multitask-research-study-082409.html

My 3yr old daughter already knows what an iPod is… and she automatically assumes that every phone she picks up can also take pictures. I wouldn’t be surprised if my older daughter comes home from the 1st grade next year and says her class has its own social network on Ning. All these things are great… don’t get me wrong… but as a Dad, I think we just have to be more conscious of how they’re affecting the way our children learn and develop.

24″ x 24″
house paint, modeling paste, oil stick, pencil, and tar on canvas
1/24/10

I designed and built this piece to hold miscellaneous toys, books, etc. in the little one’s bedroom. I love using 3DS Max to model these things before I even pick up a single tool – it makes doing the real work that much easier (and enjoyable).

Basic stuff here… 1/2″ plywood for the main carcass. And I ripped down some pine into 1×2’s and 1×3’s for the face frame, putting it together with pocket screws first, then tacking it to the front of the piece.

The initial sketch:

A clay rendering in Max:

The finished piece:

And in use:

Over the weekend I came across a posting for a very easy to follow recipe and technique on “how to make the best bread ever” and it inspired me once again to give it a shot. I used a combination of Eirik’s method of folding over the dough while still in the original bowl and the information that he linked to at the NY Times, and indeed, the bread turned out quite good.

Here’s what I did:

I combined 3 cups of flour, 1/4 teaspoon yeast, 1 & 1/4 teaspoon salt, and a pinch of cornmeal in a large bowl. I added about 1 5/8 cups of water. After spending about two minutes or so mixing it all up with a spoon, you end up with a sticky mess in the bowl. I covered that with plastic wrap and set it out on the counter overnight. I let it sit for 16 hours in total before touching it again. After the 16 hours I unwrapped the bowl and used a wide spatula to fold the dough over itself (while still in the bowl). I did this for a few minutes working my way around the bowl. I may try it again, using the original method explained in the NYTimes article but this sufficed. I let the dough sit another two hours with a kitchen towel covering the bowl, again just left sitting out on the counter. At this point I turned the oven on at 450. We have a set of ceramic Corningware pots with lids so I used a large, round 2.5 Liter one and placed it in the oven as suggested. When it reached 450, I took the hot pot out, dusted the bottom of the pot with flour, dusted the top of the dough with flour and cornmeal, and flipped the dough into the pot. Place the lid back on and then into the oven with it all for half an hour. After the 30 minutes, take the lid off, and I let it bake for another 15 minutes before taking it out and placing it on a cooling rack.

We had some tonight with dinner, dipping it on olive oil, and it was quite delicious!