things happen for a reason

I don't want to get all yoga but sometimes things do seem to happen for a reason. I HATE what I do for a living and have been desperately seeking something that involves using my creativity and skills.

My grandpa did upholstery for a living, he had his own shop at his house. About 8 years ago he gave all his equipment to my mom, she kept it in his shop and did some furniture and a few cars for my dad and I. My grandpa passed away about 4 years ago and the stuff has not seen much use since then. I often think of moving up there just to use the shop and learn to make bicycle panniers. I mess around on Monica's machine at home sometimes. I've made a couple small bags and done some repairs on my xtracycle bags.

A couple weeks back we were visiting my mom and she said she needed to get the stuff out of the shop before it was ruined and asked if I wanted it. I of course accepted the offer and quickly brought the sewing machine home and made room for it.

My plan is to practice sewing with it every night and work on some bag designs. In the last few days I've already made two dog beds and one pannier. I'm learning how to set the tension on the machine and sew small stuff without running my fingers under the needle.

My next step is to sell some of the stuff we have been collecting for the past 16 years and use some of the money for supplies. Hopefully by then I will have enough practice to make bags and sell them.

Here it is singer 16-188, no zig zag, no reverse, no embroidery, no button hole option just straight strong stitches. I'm not sure of the year but the parts book that came with it is dated 1923. My mom said it belonged to my grandpa since before she was born(1949)

I dont wanna grow up

Brian's new commuter

I want to ride my bike to work, and I did for a while. But its a 24 mile one way commute. By the time I got home, and got my stuff ready for the next day I would be exhausted. A few days in a row would kick my butt. I know the right thing to do would be get a job closer to home, but until we make some major lifestyle changes this job works out well for me. So after a lot of thought I purchased an ezee electric assist kit with a 48 volt battery upgrade, and another xtracycle base kit. I combined it with some extra parts I had laying around and built this urban assault vehicle.
This thing is bad ass! I've been riding it for a few weeks now. I average 24 miles an hour. With time for stop lights it takes me about 1 hour and 10 minutes to get to work. In the car it would take me 35 minutes to an hour depending on traffic. I charge the battery at night and recharge when I get to work. Now instead of sitting on my ass on the freeway, I get a couple of hours exercise a day. Plus we spend a lot less at the pump.

marin headlands

We are doing a bicycle tour next month from Corvallis Oregon to Fort Bragg CA. We have not been training at all this year, so we headed to cooler weather to ride some hills. We spent a lot of time looking around the bunkers buried in the hillsides. It was near 100 degree in Sacramento, it was quite a bit cooler down there.





Down these stairs was a very creepy metal door that only opened a little bit, Monica had a panicked look on her face after walking down there. After seeing some people emerge out of the darkness we finally stepped inside.

looking past the doorway was PITCH BLACK, I snapped a few photos, expecting to see monsters hiding in the shadows, unfortunately it was just this.




There are hidden entrances all over the mountainsides.

This deer was 20 feet from the road and about 50 feet from grass, trees and water. Not sure why she picked this small patch for lunch.

play day

We are getting a little burnt out on all work and no play so we took a break and went to the yuba river. We drove to purdons crossing and hiked upstream a little until we found a magical spot. We did not get there until around 6 pm so we only had a couple hours until dark but it was really nice. Can't wait to go back.

Dehydrated tomatoes

Last year I got some sun dried tomatoes from a friend/organic farm manager and they were super delicious! When we finished them I bought some at the store and they were not even close, not as sweet. I found out from my friend that she used Juliette tomatoes, so, this year when we sought out tomato plants I made sure we got some Juliette's. I've been so looking forward to making these, hoping they will turn out just as delicious as Kay's. In with the Juliette's we dried Roma's and a couple Speckled Roman's. And yes, they are delicious!

Pickles

We received a water bath canner for an anniversary present, and we have been harvesting lots of cucumbers so we decided to make a batch of pickles. We followed a basic recipe and added jalapeno, garlic, black peppercorns, and grape leaves. We will let them sit a couple of months and see how they turned out, hopefully it works because we are making more tonight!