A June weekend in Washington. Sun & warm rain.

We did.  

Saturday: biked 20 mi. in sunny (20 deg C) Ocean Shores, Washington. 

Sunday:  kayaked Johns River, Washington (Google: 46.905949,-124.004772) with the YMCA kayaking class grads on a warm (16 deg C) rainy afternoon.  A slight wind during the break put a little chill on the group and made me wish I'd brought my tarp, stove, a saucepan, an Earl Gray tea bag and a package of Ramen.  I could manage the umbrella until paddling into the wind.  An Inuit storm paddle would have improved the paddling a bit by reducing its bumping the umbrella. 

How was your weekend?

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From: MEC Service Centre - Services
To: 'Jeffrey Wong'
Sent: Saturday, June 22, 2013 2:26 PM
Subject: RE: Outfit your outdoor kitchen (Thread:586747)

Good to hear, Jeffrey!

Hope you have a great weekend.

Cheers,Sophia Ili

Marshalls for ladybugs

The ladybugs purchased in March (Amazon.com) for the aphid infestation have all been released.  At least half of them perished in the fridge.  Most of the remaining bugs are dying in the hot tub room, despite having plenty of water around and plenty of aphids to eat.  The temp there today is ~73 deg F.  The bugs mostly walk around a bit climb around the eggplants and tomatoes and the bell pepper, then eventually die.

I bought 1500 ladybugs ($10) from Marshalls Pet & Garden today.  release scheduled for tonight after sunset.  A third every two days.

Need to

Sweet Fennel

Sweet Fennel.  a large bush grown from seed, thrives in a storage tote turned self watering container.  It wicks water up from the bottom of the tote.  It drinks 5 gallons a week easily.

What do I do with it?  Chop off a bunch and strain off the soft feathery leaves and mix it raw into hot rice and beans.  Adding a little olive oil and maybe tomatoes (grape cherry or just chunks of whole tomatoes) makes it a meal.  Adding some sunflower seeds or pistachios makes it a bit better.

swimming Butterfly

I was drowning trying this stroke.  It was not swimming.  Then Keith taught me a one handed drill  (2 or 3 on each side then switching).  I was still drowning when I tried to translate it to actual swimming.

I went to the pool yesterday and did more drills and drowned some more.  I left the pool.  While heading for the shower, I thought about the drill and how I should slow the whole drill down.  I stood on the pool deck and wiggled through the motions of the one handed drill with hip flexion, remembering the path the hand takes from entry at midline to its sweep to the side, the hourglass shaped pull.  I swam the drill slowly for 50 yards.
I figured that I was trying to hurry the hand sweep and trying to get one arm sweep cycle to each dolphin kick.

Watching http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI8i3_7Tqtw confirmed two dolphin kicks to each arm sweep cycle.  I saw how the dolphin kick involved more knee bend than I was taught recently.  A somewhat larger number of folk say hips and back vs. knees.

Ray Way pack assessment

A couple of months ago, while looking at the Pacific Crest Trail Assn website, I clicked on a link to Ray Jardine's website.  Interested, I ordered some things which included a Ray Way backpack, Medium size 3000 cu inches.  I built it per Ray's instructions.

It is huge.  the bag without the extension collar is 3000 cubes, the mesh pockets add 400 cubes and the extension adds 1200 cubes.   Total: 4600 cubes.  I hope I never fill it.  

I moved the ladder buckle on the shoulder strap of my Ray J. pack from the bottom (shorten the strap by pulling UP on the free end) to the top (shorten by pulling down--like every other pack).  Now the strap works much better.  Also, I walked 4.5 miles with 12 lb in the pack--I didn't like that much for how it made my shoulders sore.  Even such a small load works better with a hip belt to transfer the load.  

Modifications for the next bag, a size Large 3000 done, include a sleeve sewn into the back for an air mattress support system and 4 loops  sewn on the seams between the back and the sides for a compression system.  

shoulder strap  The shoulder strap separation on the Large doesn't exceed the medium by more than .5".  L sh strap is longer, but only by 1".  And it needs 6-10" more length to accommodate things that I want to attach, like pockets, an umbrella holder, hand loop, bungees for holding water bottles and a camera pouch--wait, too much stuff.

Carrying performance.  If carrying over 12 lb, the pack works best with some kind of stiffener like a closed cell foam (CCF) pad to give it structure.  Without it, the pack just pulls down on my shoulders with the hip belt useless.   For use with an air mattress, I sewed in a sleeve for insertion and inflation--it works well, but the sleeve needs to go as low on the pack as possible.  

Hip belt.  That Ray Way hip belt for which I paid $7.95 doesn't function as in normal packs.  

Because I cannot seem to reduce my basic kit (summer camping gear before food/water) to less than 13 lb, today I walked with a 20 lb load, which includes the pack, the 2" wide 1/4" thick padded hip belt Ray sells with his packs, a CCF pad unrolled inside, 1 liter water & other weight.  4.75 miles.  Pack seems to carry O.K. with much of the weight bearing on the hips.  It might benefit from a wider hip belt of maybe 2.5 to 3"  and also placement on the pack at the lowest and most forward point so that weight in the pack doesn't ride on the buttocks.