Slight drainage problem...

I seem to have a slight drainage problem...

Backyard River

At least the backyard river is flowing away from the house, and the driveway pond crests over the front landscaping before making it into the garage (barely).  Still no water in the basement either...  :)

Sand Ridge State Forest

Rick, Nick & I went off for a much need weekend trip to Sand Ridge State Forest near Forest City, IL.  I can say this, the name does not lie about "sand", we might as well have went to Indiana Dunes... But it was still a good trip.  We didn't quite make the whole yellow loop, but we did see a good portion of the park. We started at the ranger station and hiked the yellow trail counter-clockwise, spending Friday night at BC2, before heading north on Saturday.

It rained early Saturday morning and this was the first time out with the new tent, I was a little worried, but it held up no problem! (Go Tarptent!)  The 3 man tent got a little cozy after Nick & Rick decided to avoid the tent walls during the rain... but as long as everyone stay's in their 3rd of the tent, it's really quite roomy. 

Hiking Saturday, through the never-ending sand, we headed north on the yellow trail and followed it around to BC10, stopping for lunch at the group campsite. Once at BC10, we decided to head south on the blue, brown and finally orange trails to camp at BC4, instead of following yellow around to BC6 as we had planned.   

It was strange to see cacti in Illinois, they were all over the place

Cooking dinner Saturday night

 All in all, a good trip, lots of new gear (my tent, Nick's pack) and old skills tested.  Now to just get these two to head out more than once every 8 years...

Project Arborcide Complete!

Two years of free brush removal day = Project Arborcide is complete!

Here's some "before" pictures from May 2010:

 

 

And here's the "after" picture from April 2011:

Now we just need a shrubbery!  One that looks nice... and not too expensive... 

Sawhorses complete!

Some time ago, I found these plans for replaceable insert stacking sawhorses.  I liked the idea of them, and I finally had a need for them, so I build a pair over the weekend:

Gluing the rails to the spacer

Glue drying on the rail/spacer component, cutting out gussets

Gluing/Screwing legs on

Complete!

They stack too!

I think they turned out pretty good. They feel really solid and are needed to hold the canoe while I work on it.

WunderList - A list management tool

I signed up for Wunderlist today.  It's pretty cool.  It fixes a problem I was having: notes jotted down in multiple electronic places: iPhone notes, gmail drafts, & txt files on my personal and work computers.  Now I can put everything in Wunderlist and I can access it from a web browser, windows program, or an app on my iPhone.  No more gmail drafts that I use as editable lists and never send!  Just Wunderlists now!

My Wunderlist

It's got some nifty features that make really easy to use; Like emailing lists into the program, just email me@wunderlist.com, the subject becomes the list name, and each line in the email becomes an item in the list (until there's a blank line).  When you go into the program later, you can drag and drop the order, and assign due dates if you like.  This makes it really easy to transfer data in, especially if you're like me and store lists in gmail drafts... I know, most of you are normal and write lists down on paper...

Stocking up on camping gear

I've been stocking up on some new camping gear for the last few months.  So far I've added the following to my gear collection:

Gossamer Gear G-4 (home made version, more info here):
Here's a picture of it in progress:

 I got the kit from Quest Outfitters, but used 500d Cordura instead of the 330d for extra durability.  I also improvised the top Y strap because I didn't like just the roll top.  It's still under 1 lb.  Here's some photos of the finished project:

It was a fun little project, I tested it out on a quick overnight in Yellow River State Forest, Iowa.  Here is a picture from that trip:

More pictures from the "Camping in the thundersleet" trip here

My other big addition to my gear was a new tent.  Its the Tarptent Rainshadow 2.  It hasn't shown up yet, but I can't wait!

Ethelbert strikes back...

I've been meaning to start a blog for the better part of a decade, so here it is.

http://HaveBrain-WillTravel.blogspot.com or http://www.SuperGeniusAtWork.com

For those of you that get the references in the URL and title:
1 - You're awesome!
2 - Fitting for me, isn't it?


Enjoy!