An FAO publication: Agricultural Engineering in Development: Basic Blacksmithing: A Training Manual. Might be worth getting a hard copy of this one.
Friday, January 7, 2022
Friday, September 10, 2021
Friday Links: Diet for a Small Planet at 50, Scythe Resource, Farm Tractors in Forestry
Diet for a Small Planet is being issued in a new 50th-anniversary edition:
https://www.dietforasmallplanet.org/
I have unexpectedly become interested in working with a scythe. I own two, a heavy one for brush and a very light and slim one for grass. Turns out you can still buy all the parts and maintenance tools, and there are modern-day experts ready to train you. This seems to be one of the good sites for both:
https://www.baryonyxknife.com/scac.html
And here's an English translation of a Swedish government publication about using a small farm tractor in the woods. There are still forestry winches being made for tractors, so this is all of interest to me:
https://www.maine.gov/dacf/mfs/publications/general_publications/farm_tractor_in_the_forest.pdf
Friday, September 3, 2021
Friday Links: an Onion Video Series, Axolotl Husbandry, a Woodworking Blog of Note
Amusement:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0C7941B0228E0240
Axolotl information:
Jack Plane's sister blog, Orson Cart, is building a vardo (house on wheels):
https://orsoncartatlarge.wordpress.com/2020/12/07/a-vardo-part-one/
Friday, August 27, 2021
Friday Links: Some Raw Climate Data, a New Art Gallery, BWCA Trip Planning
Weather averages for Tomahawk, Wisconsin, 1980 - 2010.
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/orders/cdo/2691475.pdf
The art gallery of my retired colleague Tom Zarilli:
A good site with resources for planning BWCA (and other) canoe trips:
Friday, August 20, 2021
Friday Links: an Interior Wall System, Bowl Gouge Sharpening
Just a pair of YouTube videos this week.
First, I like this approach to paneling an interior wall, as demonstrated by Mr. Chickadee. I will be using rigid foam to insulate the Rib Lake shack , and I had planned on horizontal wood paneling nailed to battens nailed along the inside faces of the timbers. The added step of screwing the paneling pieces to their own battens to form larger, removable panels strikes me as a huge boost to subsequent repairability.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fdm9R1Cbm0
Next, one of my current obsessions is bowl turning. I have watched many, many hours of YouTube videos on turning techniques, sharpening techniques, and pretty girls in tight-fitting tops that somehow end up covered with shavings as they turn giant bowls. As far as fine points of technique go, I find a couple of low-quality vids of David Ellsworth and Stuart Batty demonstrating to woodturning guilds quite enlightening. However, the champions of cramming pertinent information into the least time with the best videography are Dictum Tools, in a series of videos showing Nick Agar sharpening various gouge profiles and then demonstrating the geometry of the different cuts each can make. I can picture myself actually calling up this video on my iPhone while standing at the lathe for a quick refresher.
Friday, August 13, 2021
Friday Links: Freelance Writing, Tabletop Radios, Movies Within Movies, Romanian Village Photographer
Only a few this week.
A nuts & bolts look at the world of writing for money:
https://countercraft.substack.com/p/everything-ive-learned-about-being
Some good-looking radios from a brand I hadn't seen before. I have one on order, I'll let you know:
https://www.sangean.com/products/all_products.asp
Nestflix: a directory of movies-within-movies (and tv shows). Yes, they have Logjammin'. Yes, they have McBain. But you can submit any they don't have.
The photographs of Zaharia Cusnir. A village photographer in the Romanian/Moldovan border region from 1955-1970, Cusnir lived and died in relative obscurity. His negatives were found in an abandoned house, scanned, and now some are on this website. Some of the images are quite powerful: your heart goes out to the subjects. I will be spending more time with these over the weekend.
Friday, August 6, 2021
Friday Links: About Tabs, Citizen Science in ATL, MEI Packs, Wood-Fired Ovens
First, a tab about tabs and tabbing:
(Some of our clutter is there because it's stuff that reminds us of who we want to be.)
An opportunity to do citizen science here in Atlanta:
MEI makes the Voyageur, my favorite carry-on with backpack straps. I have ordered these as gifts several times and gotten excellent feedback each time:
https://www.meipacks.com/collections/carry-ons/products/deluxe-voyageur-new?variant=29110618751056
An old-school website on old-school woodfired ovens:
https://www.traditionaloven.com/