Not Finished Yet!!!

Just one more post to fill in the next steps in constructing a yak. When you get to the varnishing stage, any minute speck of dust will disturb the finished surface, to it is imperative that you work in a dust free atmosphere. The way to achieve this is to dust the table, blow dust off of it with an air compressor, mop the floor (twice) then put up plastic walls and ceiling to keep any stray dust particles from finding their way to the wet varnish. (If they can find a way, they WILL)


Before you start, you change into cleanly washed (dust free) clothes, spray water on the floor to settle and trap any dust, and then get out your foam brush and go to work. Also, because of the toxic fumes in the varnish, you wear a special respirator that traps the fumes and only gives you clean air to breath. It's really quite fun to be at this stage! One coat of var, then you sand everything with very fine sand paper (400 grit). After sufficient drying time, another coat, sanding, another coat etc. until you have 6 or 7 full coats on the yak. When I get to that point, I'll post again, and show how to finish installing the accessories.

More Yak Building

After the basic shape has been formed, the hull and deck fiberglassed, and everything has been given several coats of the epoxy, it looks like a kayak. Two hatches were cut in the deck which give access to storage space for food, camping supplies and other necessities. Also, the coaming was installed. This is the trim that goes around the opening where you sit inside the kayak. One thing that should be mentioned is that between every coat of epoxy everything has to be sanded which results in many hours of sanding. Because of the toxic epoxy dust this creates, much of this work was done outdoors. It is so nice that the weather cooperated. As you can see, it took a lot of clamps to to fit the flat coaming to fit the curved deck, and the hatch trimming around the openings for the hatches.

Kayak Building 101

Well, I guess that it is about time for me to post a bit about my most recent project / experiment / adventure / or whatever you want to call it. A number of years ago, I had wanted to build a canoe. Because of all that was going on at the time it was an impossible dream so we bought a canoe. Recently that dream was revived and I am beginning on the finishing stages of not a canoe, but a 17 foot kayak.
I have debated about how I should blog about this project since the blog runs backward in time but the kayak was built with time going in the opposite direction. What I have decided to do is post a picture of the kayak in a nearly finished state with one coat of varnish on it and five or six more coats to go. When the varnishing is complete, I will put the rigging on, the seat, the foot rests and a few other parts and it will be ready to throw in the water. Then I will go back and show a few of the major steps in the process of it's construction. The picture at the top shows the yak after it's first coat of varnish.

After ordering the kit which contains most of the materials necessary for construction I went to the lumber yard and bought lumber to build a table on which to build the yak. After constructing the 20 foot long and 2 feet wide table, I laid out the wooden parts that came in the kit. I then began to fasten the parts together with epoxy and then I drilled small holes along the edges of each piece and wired the pieces together. After the pieces were wired together they were formed into the basic kayak shape. At this point, a mixture of epoxy and wood powder was used to fasten the pieces together. Then the interior was coated with epoxy. After putting on the epoxy, a layer of fiberglass was put on the bottom of the hull and coated with epoxy. It was nice having Daren there to help with this part of the project. The next step was to put the deck over the hull. It was nice to have a helpful wife to help hold the deck in place while it was nailed down.
After nailing down the deck it is covered with a layer of fiberglass and more epoxy. The fiberglass hanging down from the deck will be trimmed off. It is at this point that it begins to look like a real kayak. I wanted to do a little personalizing so I took some wood veneer and created a circular decoration which I epoxied on the front of the deck. Well, that is probably enough for tonight. Stay tuned for the next installment coming soon to a blog near you.

Have You Seen My Epiphyllum Oxypetalum?

The responsibility for this whole fiasco rests with our East Coast daughter, who will remain unnamed in order to protect her good name. But.... about 4 years ago, while we were visiting with her family, she gave me a small piece of a leaf she had started to root in a glass of water. I took it home and stuck it in a glass and then later potted it in a growing pot.

It started growing, and soon had taken over a corner of the kitchen. It sprouted numerous leaves and then the leaves started sprouting leaves. Then all kinds of long shoots started growing. They wound their way up the side of the cabinets, across the top, across the doorway and then across the next cabinet. one very small flower like bud appeared and then died and dropped off. I finally cut off a bunch of the stringers. (78 feet was their total length)

Not much more happened except some new shoots and leaves started growing. Then..... the other night, Chere Bear called me and said "look at this!!" There was a long stem with a large closed flower bud on it. We watched it closely for a few days because we knew that this flower would bloom at night and then be dead the next day. We did not want to miss it! Then one evening, we saw that the bud was starting to open. We were amazed at how beautiful and fragrant it was.










It continued to open up.

We watched it for a while and then turned in for the night. I checked it once in the middle of the night and it still looked fine except a couple of the little petals that were starting to droop. When we checked it the next morning, it was gone. It is a little sad that such a beautiful and fragrant flower comes and goes so quickly. (I guess there are some lessons about life that the flower could teach us) We are so happy that we were able to see the whole process. We don't know if, or when the plant will bloom again, but this one flower makes all the care and climbing vine mess worth while.

going... going.. gone!!

It was just 24 hours from when it started to open up until it was completely gone. :(

We will keep you posted if or when it ever blooms again

Hey....That was fun. Let's do another one.

One thing that happened this summer, is that a friend and I went to Pocatello, Idaho and found another of the Fremont/Mystery glyphs. This has similar designs as the one in Fillmore canyon and the one on the cliffs above Cedar City. Now we need to get to the ones in Nephi, Manti and Ogden. Anyone want to further the interests of science by making a donation to our gas fund? Please send them to me directly, and we will give you recognition when we complete our final report.

The first picture is of the left side of the glyph and the second is the right side. a small section in the middle is missing because some idiot thought it would look nice on his coffee table.. I should also note that the chalk was on the glyphs when we found them. We did NOT put the chalk on them. Interesting to find the same characters in such different locations. Also, I suspect that the horse and cow are more recent additions.


Oh! One other thing I have accomplished this summer was to memorize all of the elements in the periodic table. (some 100 or so... all the way from A -Actinium- to Z -Zinc) It was fun, but now there is no more room in my head for any other information. It's full...I hate it when that happens!

I am once more posting on my blog.

Due to the numerous requests, (3 in all) I am once more starting to post to my blog. When I have something more to say, I will post it.