A Good Friday

The Good Friday holiday turned out to be a pretty good one. Among other things, I stopped in to Kisseynew Canoe Company to see what was happening there. Mark was working on his new canoe and it was looking pretty good. When I arrived, he had been shaping a yoke of ash & walnut using a power carving wheel on a disc grinder.

I then headed down to the river for a paddle, my first paddle of 2008. I used the Saskatoon Canoe Club's relatively new Swift Osprey. This solo canoe is one I've been wanting to try for some time now, particularly since it is a canoe I think might be a good one to build someday (although probably I need something with greater capacity for tripping use). The first thing I noticed is that it is light, certainly the lightest canoe I have paddled (my experience in actual solo canoes is limited to 2, and the other one is Royalex). I found that for me it paddled the most comfortably in a heeled over position using my voyageur paddle and a "canadian" paddling style which has the paddle slicing forward through the water. The canoe felt a bit "tender" at first, particularly in the heeled over position which kept it interesting whenever the dog would move around. This instability was quite manageable as the dog & I both became accustomed to it. At first I had Kaya in the stern because there is more room but I realised later that the bow would keep her closer to the centerline and not give her room to roam. The sliding seat made adjusting trim a pretty simple matter. There is a foot brace as well and I did try paddling with my bent shaft paddle but it just did not seem quite right.

The weather was cool and overcast but not bad at -3C with a light north wind (9-13 kph according to Environment Canada). The river was mostly frozen but for a span of 15 - 100 m along the east shore. The current in the open channel of water was swift, making me work for my upriver progress. I first headed upriver with no particular goal in mind. As I warmed up and my muscles got used to the task I kept picking points farther upriver to head to. Eventually I came to the end of the open water at the Queen Elizabeth II power plant. The power plant is the source of thermal pollution which keeps this stretch of river open much of the winter.

After a brief rest I turned back downriver and into the cool wind to return to the boathouse (note to self, don't let you wet gloves cool down to ambient during a rest stop then put them back on and expect warmth any time soon!). The total distance was about 6.6 km according to the Google MapsPedometer. SCC Marathon Division members Trevor & Viki were there and heading out on the water, Trevor for his 11th paddle of 2008.

The Wildlife seen was restricted to birds: mallards that have been there all winter, geese that have recently returned though they may only have come from the Diefenbaker Lake outflow (80 km), some gulls and magpies.

A software-generated version of one of my snapshots:

Paddle To Be Free

A video by Branden Kraiker, son of paddling gurus Rolf & Debra Kraiker. Watching this video makes me want to start saving up my money to take our family up to the Thelon River.

Another Kayak To Build - The Sea Flea

I have started building another kayak. This time, it's for my daughter who turns 6 this summer. The kayak is a Tom Yost design called the Sea Flea and we are building the 11' version. Tom Yost has created a bunch of kayak designs and has made the plans and instructions available for free at yostwerks.com.

This kayak is a "skin on frame" which means that it is composed of a frame (plywood & cedar) covered in a skin (PVC fabric). Skin on frame is the method of building boats (qajak, umiak, etc.) used for thousands of years by the Inuit and other northern peoples where the frame would have been made from whatever wood and bone was available, and the skin was quite literally skin (seal, but others would have been used as well). The methods described in the online manual by Tom Yost are quite far removed from those traditional kayak building techniques. Yost's methods were originally described to build folding kayaks using HDPE stations and interlocking aluminum stringers. However, these methods have been modified to build non-folding kayaks with wood instead. The latter method allows the boat to be built at a lower cost (I'm using mostly scrap wood or what I had on hand) and more quickly. The Sea Flea frame consists of 4 cross sections together with several stringers that run lengthwise. The stringers include two gunwales, a keel, two chine stringers, a bow deck stringer and two stern deck stringers (that's a point I need to clarify).

The Sea Flea specs from the Yostwerks web site:

Length overall: 11'
Beam: 19"
Height: 8"
Coaming: 19" x 16"
Weight: 20 lbs.

The weight given is for the folding version built with aluminum and HDPE. The wood version should come out slightly less (maybe). I expect that this will be a kayak my daughter can play around with and develop some skills with. Initially, I'll use pool noodle pontoons or some such device to stabilize it. As she grows and develops, those training wheels can eventually be removed (in a couple of summers?) and she should be able to paddle on her own. I also expect to tow her a fair bit, or I might rig up something like what Mike Hanks arranged. In a few years when she starts to outgrow it (based on size or skills) it can be handed down to her sister and we'll have to build something bigger (assuming she doesn't hate it and wants another kayak of her own).

The first step I undertook was to convert all of the offsets from decimal feet to fractional inches (e.g. 0.745 = 8 15/16") and listed them in a table. Next, I plotted these offsets out onto a large piece of drawing paper, borrowed from my kids.
I then got my daughter involved by having her cut out the stations from the paper staying to the outside of the lines.

It looks like the stations will just barely fit on a scrap piece of 5/8" plywood I have. I also have some other wood that would work quite well (1/2" pine panels bought for some other project), but I thought I should use up this scrap first (now that I type it, I'm having second thoughts, the pine would be lighter and wouldn't need to be painted, but I suppose the glue could delaminate if water ever penetrated it).
I also have built the strongback which will support the stations during construction. My strongback was a bit different from that described by Tom Yost, being composed of scrap 2x4s, a length of 2x6, and no 1x6 top plate. The strongback is only 8 feet long, though for the 11' Sea Flea I could have gotten away with one that was 6' long (I decided not to cut up my lumber any more than I had to and I had 2 8' 2x4s on hand). The 2x6 was incorporated into it to allow it to sit nicely in one of my stands, manufactured for my guillemot build a couple years ago. The only problem I see with this set up is the working height as my stand is tall. That will be quite convenient for me, but not so much for my daughter who I hope to have help me.

The next steps are to rip some stringers from a 10' cedar 2x6 then to scarf some shorter pieces to make gunwales and chine stringers that are 11' long (10' may be enough for the keel?). I will also attach the paper station drawings to a sheet of 5/8" plywood and cut out the four stations (cross sections), then align stations 1 & 4 on the strongback (stations 2 & 3 are not attached to the strongback but are merely placed between the stringers with the correct spacing).

Jeff Healey

Just a couple weeks after the death of Canadian folk music great, Willie P. Bennett, Jeff Healey passed away this evening due to cancer.

It's a very sad day. Although Healey was well known for a couple of hit singles, his real benefit to the musical culture of this country was his work as a jazz musician with his band the Jazz Wizards and his vinyl-spinning appearances on CBC radio (which is the venue that made me most familar with him).

Shaving Horse

Something I plan to build one of these days is a shaving horse. Murat recently posted on his blog his modified and foldable version of the shaving horse. This idea is very interesting because although it would be nice to have and use a shaving horse for my paddle making, it's not really very often that it would get used. Having the option of keeping it stored in the rafters of the shed would be very handy and kudos to Murat for coming up with the concept and for sharing his invention. Murat added some information regarding improvements he made to his shaving horse and you can find it here.

Here's another reference that I should keep in mind when I build my own. And another picture to have a look at. (Thanks Murat.)

Jerk!

Some people really know how to tick me off. I spent a year and a half or more building a kayak, and this SOB progresses from setting up forms on Sunday to glassing the hull on Wednesday!! Jerk. Hell, if it weren't for a canoe club meeting this evening he'd probably be paddling by the weekend.

OK, actually Mark is a friend of mine and president of the local canoe club (and the local snowshoe club too). He's working with another friend, Martin Bernardin of Kisseynew Canoe Company to build a canoe for his solo expedition paddle this summer from La Ronge, Saskatchewan to the Hudson Bay in Manitoba, a mere 1,400 km (visit wildpaddler.com to learn about his plans). Mark is building a canoe form, using conventional cedar-strip building methods, upon which he will lay-up a kevlar & S-glass canoe.

I look forward to following Mark's progress on the canoe build, but I best not blink or I'll miss it.

Paddle Making

A new paddle making blog. This fellow claims to be new to the hobby. He's been busy and he seems to be pretty creative. Worth a look.

Reading the River

Reading the River: A Traveller's Companion to the North Saskatchewan River, by Myrna Kostash with Duane Burton.

Like the last book I read, Late Nights On Air, this book is one I received for Christmas. I have only gotten about two pages into it so far but the night before last while starting to read, it occurred to me that there might be a reference in the book to a fellow boat builder, Robert Pruden (I had an inkling as I recall him mentioning something about it in the past). I checked the references at the back and sure enough, he was listed there. Robert is a fellow participant in the Kayak Building Bulletin Board boatbuilding forum whose posts are often entertaining and is (in)famous for paddling over a waterfall on the North Saskatchewan River near Saskatchewan Crossing shortly after the start of the first leg of his cross-Canada solo kayak trip. Robert also is famous on the KBBB for paddling his home-built kayaks mid winter amongst and on top of the ice pans of the partially frozen North Saskatchewan River in Edmonton. If I recall correctly, he uses picks in his hands to help pull himself up onto solid ice in order to effect his egress from the river. Whether it his story of going over the waterfalls, his winter paddling, or his paddling to Borden (just a few miles from here), I look forward to seeing what contribution he has made to this book.

[Regarding the section of river Robert ran, my book North Saskatchewan River Guide lists the approximate spot where Robert started as a canoe launch point and later says of this section: The rapids range from Grade II to VI (minimum intermediate canoeing skill)." However, it makes no mention of where those Grade VI rapids might be (uhhhh, that's also known as a waterfall, a big one). ]

I thought at first the book would be a guide with historical context of each section of the N. Sask. River. However, Reading the River seems to be more of an anthology, a collection of writings of historical and modern interest organised by region. I'll update this once I get into it.

Update Feb 11 '08: I am about 1/4 of my way through the book now, having read through to beyond Drayton Valley (the book is arranged geographically, proceeding downriver from the Saskatchewan Glacier) as of last night. In the Drayton Valley section was an a unique piece of literature, an excerpt from a forum posting by Robert Pruden, originally appearing on kayakforum.com, in the trips forum in May 2003. Robert's post was regarding a downriver paddle from Devon to Edmonton and was written the casual style typical of a blog posting and to Robert in particular.

Late Nights On Air

Late Nights On Air by Elizabeth Hay is a novel set in 1975-76 in the Northwest Territories. So far, most of the setting for the book has been a CBC radio station in Yellowknife. However, as of last night I am beyond midway through the book and four of the characters are setting off on a canoe trip, retracing the fatal journey of explorer John Hornby on the Thelon River. So far the book has dealt largely with the screwed up relationships of various characters with the backdrop of an impending gas pipeline through the north. My opinion of the book to this point is not all that positive, but now that the canoe trip through the barrenlands is underway, I am optimistic regarding it's potential. If nothing else, I now am interested in reading more about Joh Hornby and fellow travellers Edgar Christian and Harold Adlard.

Update: Jan 29 '08 - Well I finished off the book last night. In the end, the book was interesting and overall was not bad. I'm not sure I get it all though and I can't say it was one of my favourites. The canoe trip portion was good and I was interested as it's a region I'd really love to paddle some day (Thelon River through NWT and Nunavut). I'll get my wife to read it next so that she can give me her opinion. I am also very intrigued by the idea of living in the north as the characters in the book did. However, I am not all that intrigued by messed up people having messed up relationships.

Next up: Reading the River: A Traveller's Companion to the North Saskatchewan River, Myrna Kostash

What I'm Reading

There's a new feature here at Pawistik.blogspot.com which I've called "What I'm Reading." I have been wanting for some time now to add a list of books that I'm reading to my web presence with the occasional book review. I've finally taken a step towards implementing this. On the sidebar on the right I've added the "What I'm Reading" heading. Under that heading you will find a list of what is currently or has recently been on my bedside table with links to a post specific for that book. My intention is to write some of my comments on that particular book which will show up as it's own post here in the blog. I'll use the tag "books" so you should be able to use that tag to find all of the book posts easily once I figure out how to set that up.

The first book for the list will be Late Nights On Air by Elizabeth Hay.

Kent Heads Home

I just heard the news - less than 2 months after the Roughrider's Grey Cup triumph, Kent Austin has accepted a job offer from his former team, University of Mississippi, Ole Miss. Austin is from Nashville originally and quarterbacked for Ole Miss from '81 to '85 before, he led the Riders to Grey Cup victory in '89 as quarterback. Austin is, without a doubt, the single most popular human being in Saskatchewan right now and his leaving will leave many in grief. It was reported that Austin was not leaving for money, but rather to return home.

It's a sad day here in Saskatchewan.

Busy, Busy, Busy

The last 4 evenings have been spent working into the wee hours of the night on the website for the Saskatoon Canoe Club, as well as putting together a poster for some upcoming events.

The SCC has just switched hosts in advance of the demise of the Saskatoon FreeNet. I spent an inordinate amount of time worrying over the decision of what host to move to, mentally debating such issues as whether to support local companies or go with cheaper but non-local hosts, and how much disk space and bandwidth we might need. In the end I went with what will probably be more than enough space from a local company, for what seems like a reasonable price (though cheaper hosting can be obtained).

Moving everything over to the new host, I took the opportunity to clean up the files and update some of the pages and it was this process that has kept me up at nights. In particular, the coming events page needed major work to update and generally improve. Now tonight I was going to bed early (~10:30 or so) and here I still am after midnight. In the past I used NVU html editor. I have recently started using an older version of DreamWeaver and am finding it much better. I think now I'll be able to do a better job of cleaning up and maintaining the pages; I think it was the tables in the original set-up that have been causing me fits.

I'll try to paste in the info from the poster (which will shortly be seen in some local libraries, Eb's Boomtown, Outter Limits, etc.) in case you're interested.

Saskatoon Canoe Club

2008 Winter Events

January 18^th, 6pm – 9pm: Potluck Supper & Larry Easton Presentation. St. Paul’s United Church, 454 Egbert Ave. Professional photographer, Larry Easton, has paddled and photographed many places in North America. Larry will give a multimedia presentation and discuss some of his favourite trips including Baja, Nahanni, Broken Group Islands and Cree River.

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February 28^th, 7pm – 9pm: Annual General Meeting & Thelon River Presentation. J.S. Wood Library, 1801 Lansdowne Ave. Join us for a short AGM, have your input into the club’s activities, and view a presentation from Bill Bishopp’s trip on the Thelon River.

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March 28^th, 7pm – 9pm: Trip Presentations. St. Paul’s United Church, 454 Egbert Ave. Mark Holmstrom will discuss his Churchill River trip and Adrian Johnston will discuss his Cree River trip.

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April 24^th & 25^th, 5:30 – 8:30 pm: Paddle Building Workshop. Lee Valley Tools, 820A 51^st St. E. Cost: $85 with tax. Space is limited; to sign up call Mark @ 955-4587. Participants will complete a straight-shaft paddle to take home.

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May 4^th: Boathouse Open House and 35th Anniversary Festivities. We are planning a party so watch for details!

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For more information visit our website: www.saskatooncanoeclub.org

Roasted Tomato Dip

I came across this recipe for Roasted Tomato Dip today on Laurie March's website, WildernessCooking.com. I think I'll have to head to the grocery store to pick up some shallots and tomatoes then give the recipe a try.

I've made a shredded pork dish of Laurie's and it was great. We ate it fresh rather than dehydrating it for camping use but I'll have to make it again and dehydrate it for use next summer.

While perusing the Wilderness Cooking blog, I also came across this link to home-made hot sauces. It looks like I'll have to pick up some chiles while at the grocery store too!

By the way, you might also like Laurie's other sight: Outdoor Adventure Canada.

Update: Jan 29 '08 - I made the "Tropical Fire" hot sauce from the web site mentioned above on Saturday and it turned out great. I now have about 3 litres of a sweet mango-tasting hot sauce. It was made with double the mango, banana and kiwi from what was called for in the recipe, but no papaya (papayas in the local grocery were too expensive) and spanish onion instead of scallions (scallions were also too expensive). It has lots of kick, but is not too hot and very flavorful. I would rate the heat a 6 out of 10.

Richard Flohil on Music

"If you can't make music, try to help make music happen."
- Richard Flohil

Let's just say I can't make music.

Merry Christmas!

I've been very busy at work lately, getting home late and sometimes coming back after the kids are asleep. I've also been out in the shop before work & after everyone's asleep trying to finish the Christmas presents I am building for the girls (shhhh... don't tell them but I'm building a doll cradle for each of them). Lots of trial & error, plus as usual everything is taking about ten times longer than I figured it would. Last night they were glued & screwed together, and the holes filled with plugs cut using a Veritas plug cutter. After trimming the plugs used to fill the screw holes early this morning and some final staining I should be varnishing them tonight with any luck. Then tomorrow I can varnish again, and maybe again of needed. Then hopefully the varnish will mostly cure by the time we leave for Christmas.