No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Where are you and where are you going?
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sky
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I would hope that the police do not try to use my images as evidence. The intent is to get a little more attention to my neighborhood with regard to police presence. Also, I want to annoy the police chief a bit. I used to be her boss.

sky
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mountainFrugal
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Post by mountainFrugal »

Maiden voyage? Beautiful craft.

sky
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Canoe Build

I finished the canoe to a point where it can be used. It is also ready to be stored outside on a trailer. I have gotten a lot of compliments on it, it is a good conversation starter. I have been out one time and am still learning about how to set up and use the boat.

The boat is a rowing boat, it is too wide to paddle. It is not very stable without a load in it. That is the type of boat it is designed as, a cargo carrying boat, but a narrow boat that rows easily and is fast. The designer used an Adirondack Guideboat as the template, although a Guideboat is longer and has a rounded hull, where my canoe has chines (corners, edges and flat panels).

I easily rowed at 4 mph without trying hard, with short oars. I need to build a seat set up for rowing. I don't think I will do a sliding seat, rather a fixed seat that allows upright sitting while rowing, with a backrest for resting.

I still have some things I want to add to the boat, such as a rudder, tent and sail rig, but for now I am trying the boat out as a rowing craft and testing to see what is the best way to move forward with these additions.

Food ballast

On my trial run with the boat, I brought two gamma lid pails full of canned food which represent close to two weeks of food. I am guessing about 20 pounds each. This was just enough ballast to make the canoe more stable and less wind sensitive. I will add water jugs and camping gear to this. I think I will be able to easily carry what I need for two weeks camping. If I use backpacking type food, which is lighter than canned food, I can probably carry a month of food. I don't foresee going camping that long, I need to get back home every few days at a minimum. The point is that the boat is designed to be used for extended camping trips. The boat could be rowed 10 to 20 miles to a camp, for example in a reservoir surrounded by national forest, and one could then explore the area around the camp for an extended time.

Obsessive Projects

It is not a good thing to be taken over by obsessive projects. My mind focuses on only that project and other important things don't get done. It may be my own laziness, but when I focus on an obsessive project I don't walk as much as I want to, and I don't do basic maintenance stuff that I have on my list and want to put behind me. When I think of some small task or project I would like to do, my mind says, "wait till the boat is done" and it puts that idea aside, if I do not write it down in my list of things to do. Now I have a backlog of maintenance stuff to do.

Car Speed Detector

It estimates the speed of a passing vehicle. If the vehicle is speeding, the camera saves an image of the vehicle and prints the date, time and an estimate of speed on the image. It saves the time and speed to a csv file. It saves the time, speed and path to the image in a mysql database for dispay by a future website with php/mysql. It automatically turns the image saving function on and off so that it only captures images between sunrise and sunset. It emails a message with the image attached when the speed exceeds a set mph. Saving the data in a csv file, mysql database or sending an email can be turned on and off as desired. The program does pretty much what I hoped it would do, now I just need to figure out what to do with it.

I have had a request to make it automatically post to Facebook, but I am not a Facebook member and it appears you have to get Facebook's approval of automated posting, with review of the code. Too much hassle for me. My brother says home owners associations would buy this as a product so they could shame speeding drivers on social media. I don't need to make money and I have made the code available as open source, so someone else can follow that path if they so desire.

The program is inaccurate at high speeds and the image quality is poor. I need to calibrate it at higher speeds but I don't like speeding through my own neighborhood. Before I start to work on software solutions, I need to get the device from behind a window screen in a second story window and put it closer to the street. I may build a tripod mount and make the (device + battery + web connection phone + tripod) portable. Then I can set it up anywhere, initialize it and let it run till the battery runs out.

By letting my program run for the last few weeks, I have a database of the number of cars passing my home with the estimated speed and an image of the vehicle if it exceeds a set speed. I capture about a hundred images every day. I may write a program to pattern match images so I can identify a specific vehicle and which times it passes at high speed. I might be able to predict when the vehicle will pass at high speeds. It is getting to the point where the project is pretty much complete, but I don't know exactly what to do with it. Maybe move on to some other python project.

It is the fall season now, so that means nice weather, fewer bugs and time to go outside. I may shelf the programming until the snow files.

Python OpenCV

Some advice for beginners:

1. There are different versions of Python. Generally, 2.7 and 3.5 are two common versions. Code written for 2.7 may not work on 3.5. Tutorials rarely say which version they are written for. This means that you may follow a tutorial and the script will not work. Did you make a typo? Did you miss a line? Was the tutorial for a different version? It doesn't work and you may never know why. Try another tutorial and don't give up.

2. When installing OpenCV, do NOT install using pip (python package installer). Find a tutorial on how to install OpenCV and Contributions using the build-make-install method.

If you can get past these two hurdles, Python and OpenCV are fairly easy to learn. Youtube seems to have the best tutorials, compared to what is on the web in text form.

Walking

I took advantage of the last days of summer weather to walk the beach every day. I have about two miles of Lake Michigan beach that I can walk near my house. It can be quite busy with a lot of people. When the wind is up, the surf comes rolling in. I take my shoes off and walk barefoot in the sand and waves. I am now walking 3 to 6 miles a day and generally the more I walk the happier I feel.

I recently bought some low cost shoes that I really like. Search for "WHITIN Men's Cross-Trainer | Barefoot & Minimalist Shoe | Zero Drop Sole | Wide Toe Box" on Amazon to see them. My usual summer wear is flip flops, nylon shorts and a synthetic t-shirt, but I could not walk long distances with flip flops. These shoes are an elastic synthetic top over a tough plastic/rubber sole, the shoes are lightweight and fit snugly around your feet. They breath well. They have shoe laces but they are not needed, the elastic shoe top fits around the top of the foot. I had a hot spot the first day of wearing them and after that no problems. I may have learned to walk differently. I use them on streets and sidewalks, and I think they would be even better on trails and natural ground. I don't wear them in beach sand because I don't want sand in my shoes which might cause blisters. I have not tried them in water or wet weather yet.

My goal for next month is to get back into stretching. I have a pretty good routine that I used to do every morning but got too lazy. If I do my stretches every morning and walk every day, my feeling of well being will go way up.

Deficit

Last month I was plotting ways of escaping from civilization into the wilderness. This month I am trying to figure out how to meet like minded people and establish friendships. Funny how the pendulum swings. The biggest missing part of my life at the moment is social interaction, causing lonliness.

In the past I have been involved with various environmentally minded groups, transition towns, permaculture, antinuke, political action, linux, river advocacy, etc. There don't seem to be as many groups around anymore. I have heard that the groups have moved to facebook. To be honest, I never found any deep connections in these groups but did meet a lot of good people.

Finding community and deeper relationships is on my list of things to do. Sometimes I think about moving to a new place to be able to meet people, but I think that would actually be harder than trying to meet people in my current situation. Perhaps traveling to bigger cities for events is a solution.

My response to this problem this month was to walk around town and greet people I met with a smile and a sparkle in the eye, with a mindset that matched up with the impression I want to give. Happiness, friendliness, light heartedness, carefree, just enjoying my walk. I made sure to slow down and say hello to everyone I met, and every day I had a few nice conversations with people. This response reduced the lonliness problem, even though all the conversations were small talk and none of the interactions became anything more than a friendly one time chat.

Small Talk

Since I discovered that a good way to reduce lonliness is to have short interactions with a number of people, another of my learning goals is to learn to make small talk with new aquaintances. I would like to learn a reasonably easy way to start a conversation with someone I just met, keep it going for a few minutes, perhaps find some shared interests, common friends or interesting bits of information, and after an appropriate amount of time, close out the conversation in a friendly way.

I am able to do this now, but I have noticed that there are certain things that work better than others. For example, cynical or ironic humor can be a conversation killer. There must be some guidelines for keeping a friendly conversation going and I am going to look for them and learn them.

I could just try to learn by doing, but that would probably cause me to make a number of mistakes. I would prefer to avoid mistakes by taking time to learn from the experience of others. The people that I talk to are very valuable to me, even if I never meet them again, I want to make a good impression.

A Second Home?

I like to look at real estate, and find cities that are affordable and that I think will grow and where homes will increase in value. My current favorite city is Ishpeming, MI. Reasons: It is about 10 miles from Marquette, which is a very desirable city where property values are high. Ishpeming is a mining town and the mine closed, so the town went through some difficult times, and it still has a reputation as a place where drug addicts live. I have no doubt that this will change, perhaps very quickly, because people are looking for affordable living locations and Marquette is one of the nicest cities in Michigan, but too expensive for most. House prices in Ishpeming are cheap, super cheap. The downtown has some interesting buildings. There is a bike path that goes to Marquette, about 10 miles to Wal-Mart/Menards/Meijer. Ishpeming would be a good ERE location, I found a house in livable condition for less than $50,000.

However, I'm not going to buy anything or move, I don't want the additional maintenance responsibility of a second home. Where I live now is paradise compared to most places and I already own my home which is comfortable and in good condition from a maintenance perspective.

Plant identification

I decided that I will focus my efforts on learning the names of the plants in my garden and my surrounding area. Edible plants, weeds, ornamentals, forage, I want to know the names and the usefulness of the plants. That is my current goal. I am taking pictures of plants and using an app to try to identify them for further study. I bought a book "Botany in a Day" which I hope will help with understanding the different types of plants and how to identify them. I need to start a journal documenting the plants that I identify. I have a few foraging books and will start going through them and looking for plants in the real world. This goal goes well with my goal of walking every day. If I get tired of my normal walking routes around my neighborhood, I can go to natural areas and start learning the plants there.

sky
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by sky »

Daily walk:

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mountainFrugal
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by mountainFrugal »

Your boat is gorgeous! Sorry if I missed it, but did you make a tutorial on how you made it?

Thanks for the update on the speed camera. I love tinkering with RaspPi and all the little modules. It would be cool to have it match color/shape of cars that are repeat offenders like you suggested. If you pick it up again in the winter let us know how it goes.

One idea to connect your plant ID with your walks and socializing is to show people out walking what you just ID'd and maybe its use for some common thing. Also, being curious about people and what they might be interested in by asking more refining follow-up questions is a good way to make conversations with folks out and about. I would occasionally take Uber/Lyft when I lived in a city. I would always try to find something that the driver was super excited about by asking questions. Sometimes at the end of the ride they would even show me some photos on their phone. It ranged from family to motorcycles/motorcycle club (aka gang, lol), gardening, cooking, ethnic restaurants, charities, etc.

sky
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by sky »

The boat was built with the stitch and glue method of plywood boatbuilding. I did not take many pictures while building it. This is the fifth boat that I have built with this method. I would like to try skin on frame boatbuilding next, the resulting hulls are much lighter. As an example see "Cape Falcon Kayaks".

What type of questions do you ask to get people to tell you what they are interested in?

Western Red Cedar
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by Western Red Cedar »

Wow, that canoe is beautiful! Well done!

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mountainFrugal
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Post by mountainFrugal »

O wow! Cool. I looked into kayak building a while ago, but decided to wait until I had more space and more fine woodworking skills. Maybe starting next year I could think about it. When I was working full time and had 0 workshop space I was contemplating a more hand-holding version https://seawolfkayak.com/workshops/?v=7516fd43adaa , but now I think it would be more fun to experiment. I spent some time helping a friend steam and bend the large sections of wood for his drift boat which ended up pretty nice. He has floated it up and down the West Coast and into Canada for fly fishing trips.

Do you have a favorite boat out of the ones that you have built? If so, what makes it your favorite? What are your main takeaways that you learned the hard way from boat building? Does the season (or more importantly humidity) matter for the wood? Do you have a favorite wood? Do you have a dream wood that you would like to work with and why? What is the longest trip you have taken in your boat(s)? What do you think will be the greatest challenge with the skin on frame method? Are you going to be able to roll the kayak?

I am generally curious about the answers to these questions, but I am asking them in a one sided way to show both interest and follow-up questions to your response that you have built five. In a face to face situation I would just try to listen after asking a single follow-up question and try framing further questions that might have objective answers and subjective answers at the same time. As an example, you might like a certain boat because of its aesthetic (subjective) and it was the largest (objective) one you have built. Well we got pretty meta here really fast! So it goes on this forum I guess.

As far as casually interacting with strangers out and about I am not sure there is a formula per say for questions. I am a very introverted person and I know that when other people take the initiative to even say hello I am much more likely to stop and chat. If I remember this, I try to repay the favor while out and about and also bring up something that is in the shared environment that you just noticed (hence the plant ID). The weather is a classic, but overused one. Do something more specific. The clouds sure are puffy today. The sunny blue skies really makes the shadows under this tree dramatic. If the person engages then I would just try to keep the same curiosity about the other person and what they might have to teach. I think that it is rare when people actually listen to what is being said by being present and almost pretending that what they have to say is completely new to you. I do not mean this in a fake way, but in a resisting the urge to say something before listening and internalizing. One way to consciously do this is to summarize in your own words what the person has just said and then ... "I am curious about something you just said, summarize what was said, do you mean X or Y or something completely different?" When ever I engage people like this I am always happy I did and they often are memorable, just like you were saying in your previous post. Other people are an adventure!

sky
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by sky »

I would say my favorite boat is either the one I have now, or a 12' Wee Lassie, a lapstrake plywood canoe, which was the first canoe I built. I am now too heavy for a 12' canoe, so I guess that rules out the Wee Lassie as my favorite.

It is quite difficult to decide which type of boat to build. It is probably best to first work out how you plan to use the boat, and then research which type of boat best will fit your needs.

Wood boatbuilding is a compromise. It is fairly easy to work with wood, but is often heavier than other types of construction. After the unpleasant job of sanding my boat, I am really tired of wood boatbuilding and would like to find something different. For most recreational uses, a light boat is a better boat.

I am interested in skin on frame boatbuilding, and vacuum resin infusion boatbuilding. However, I started my current project thinking this would probably be the last boat I build. I started working in a sawmill when I was 14 and worked as a cabinetmaker for a yacht builder, so I consider myself to be a professional boatbuilder, although I have not worked in boatbuilding for money since the 1990s. I don't think there will be any big challenge to skin on frame boatbuilding, one just needs patience and persistence, and be willing to try again if something doesn't work. Wasting expensive wood by making a mistake can be annoying, but just know that even professionals need to re-do some parts.

I generally work with fir plywood and fir 1x2's. I have used 4mm birch ply in the past. I don't use teak or mahogany, they are too expensive. I am allergic to teak dust. Okume marine plywood used to be the holy grail for boatbuilders. I have never used it. My boats are not that fine, they are just homebuilt boats. I use them, they get beat up, and after a decade of hard use, sawn into pieces and thrown away.

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Ego
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Post by Ego »

Absolutely beautiful boat. I admire your skills!

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mountainFrugal
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Post by mountainFrugal »

How long does a boat project take at your level of experience?

After doing a bit more reading today..."boats are just rounded cabinets" is a quote I saw. haha. Seems like there is so much to explore with this topic and ideas to put to use. Currently our water craft consists of a packraft kayak and a SUP. The packraft has seen some good backcountry use, but not anything like @theanimal.

A few years ago my partner and I were on a van trip visiting the Bay Area and Marin county (North of San Francisco). A former co-worker moved to Berkeley and was performing a musical show at the https://www.arqueschl.org/ center in Saulsalito while we were in Marin so we stopped by.This was our first taste of how cool a working wooden boat shop could be! I suppose our main use cases would be fly fishing on lakes or slower moving rivers (class 1-2 white water max). Fly-fishing sitting down is more challenging than kneeling, so that might be a major design consideration right there. I can do some more research on my own and then ask more specific questions, but wanted to respond. I hope I can ask some more detailed questions when the time comes to take up this endeavor.

Good luck on the Botany in a Day. Flash cards help a lot. I think Elpel has some for sale, but if you spend some time drawing out the simple patterns to memorize it will be easier to remember. If you are into Apps, you can try https://www.ankiapp.com/ although I think they charge for it now.

shaz
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by shaz »

That is a lovely boat. I think it was well worth deferring other tasks to build it.

sky
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Post by sky »

Thanks to all for the compliments!

7Wannabe5
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Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Super cool boat. I used to count meeting a new human as one of my “finds” when I went Scavenger Walking. I don’t know if I’d go as far as the U.P. in quest to avoid the climate change rush. I lived there for 2 years and I can still feel my eyelashes freezing together.

sky
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by sky »

I like the 2 extra weeks in the growing season in the southern lower peninsula. But it is getting harder to find cheap housing around here. Incredible jumps in the asking prices for houses.

Gilberto de Piento
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by Gilberto de Piento »

The first rule of the UP ought to be dont talk about the UP. My prediction is that you guys are going to get overrun by a-holes in the coming years. See Colorado for what I mean.

Regarding finding groups to participate in, I think you are right that they have moved to Facebook. A club i used to be in still has a forum but they don't even post events there. It is all on fb. Meetup.com is another place to look but it may be a big city thing.

The car speed camera is a great project but too big brother for me. Maybe I will change my mind, my town seems to be going downhill with crime.

Thanks for sharing your journal.

sky
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Re: No Time Like Right Now - sky's journal

Post by sky »

I think the secret is out with the UP. I was there a year ago and it was overrun with tourists. The campgrounds were overflowing. There were 5 mile long traffic jams on US2. Only harsh winters and the dreaded black flies can save it.

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mountainFrugal
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Post by mountainFrugal »

Any interesting conversations while out and about this week?

sky
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We had a friend/neighbor over for tea yesterday. We were talking about our cell phone / data / wifi for $25 a month, and she said she still had an old fashioned dial phone, a "dumb" phone, not a smart phone. She was somewhat defensive about it and said that she liked to use her phone to talk to people and not to look at the internet. I told her that I thought it was a valid alternative, and that she was avoiding a great deal of brainwashing that most people are getting from their smart phones. We talked a bit more about how technology is impacting people and society. I think she was very happy to hear someone say the way she was deciding to live was a valid and even beneficial alternative to the standard smartphone in the pocket lifestyle. I think she went home happy and more secure that she was not alone in her way of thinking.

Of course, my takeaway was that I agree that smartphones and technology are impacting people in bad (and good) ways, but as a technology addict with 3 smartphones, I felt like a hypocrite. I have some good theories about how to live one's life, but I don't necessarily live that way, I am a total backslider.

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