Nick's New Tool Set

Nick's New Tool Set

Apparently my nephew has signed up for diesel mechanics school. Fishing boats use diesel engines and you need to know something about them to get a captain's license, so maybe that's what led to this. Or maybe the erratic nature of the fishing business has caused it to lose its appeal. Last trip out they made more money in a few days catching herring than he made all summer.

I've never heard of Teng Tools before but they seem to a big deal in some parts of the world. The tools are designed in Sweden and made in Taiwan.

Do Fish Fart?

Wild Alaska Pollock

Picture of nephew Nick wearing this T-shirt proclaiming the wonders of Wild Alaska Pollock shows up on my screen and I'm wondering what is this nonsense? Search and I find this on the Port of Seattle website:

Separately, because consumers are starting to look at sustainability in more ways than fisheries management, the Wild Alaska Pollock industry funded a study to determine what the carbon footprint of Wild Alaska Pollock actually is when compared to other proteins. The study, conducted by the world-renowned consultancy Quantis International, looked at several key impact categories such as global warming potential, energy use, use of land and water resources, and waste outputs. When the results were released, it showed that Wild Alaska Pollock is not only good for you, but good for the planet too!

The findings concluded that Wild Alaska Pollock fillet has an impact of 3.77 kg CO2-eq per kg of protein, significantly lower than comparative statistics reported for other protein sources.

• Wild Alaska Pollock: 3.77
• Chicken: 12.50
• Pork: 19.65
• Plant-Based meat: 20.83
• Beef: 115.75

I'm suspicious of anyone making disparaging remarks about cows, so I'm going to call it bullshit. However, lets see what diesel produces, because diesel is what fishing boat use for fuel, and they burn it in thousand gallon lots. Burning one gallon of diesel will produce 10 kilograms of CO2. Burning three pints of diesel will produce 3.77 kilograms of CO2. So fishermen are burning three pints of diesel for every kilogram of fish fillets they produce.

As for fish farting, the answer is mostly no, but some, like herring, do.

 

Packard Torsion-Level Ride Suspension

Coolest factory car option ever!!!
Schaefer Rod and Custom

This video got me started. The video is not very good, but at the end you can see that the rear end of the car is rising back up. Anyway, he got me curious so I did a little digging and found this video:

1956 Packard Clipper Torsion Suspension
King Rose Archives

1956 Packard

Notice that while the driveway is sloped, the car is level. Self-leveling in action!

My maternal grandfather was a carpenter and something of a bon vivant - wore a diamond ring and always had a nice car, like a Packard.

Mac's Motor City Garage has a page about the Packard Torsion-Level Ride Suspension.

Nick Goes Adventuring

Nick with today's bunch of rabbits

Nick has more fun than you and I and a dozen of our friends put together.

Birds

Dead Grouse

Nephew Nick had a successful grouse hunt.

Fishing Boat

30-foot aluminum diesel powered waterjet bowpicker

Nephew Nick seems to be getting serious about fishing. He's been working on other people's boats for a few years and now he's thinking about buying his own. This boat is in Cordova, Alaska, home to a big fish processing plant. There are no roads to Cordova and this boat is not suitable for open water, so presumably he would stay in that area and fish the inlets and the Copper River (Wikipedia).

Copper River and Cordova, Alaska

Supposedly this boat can be operated by one man, though I think a two man team would be a better choice. It would cost roughly $100K. It might work out, but it is 30 years old, and there is a bunch of complicated equipment on board, so you might want to be at least somewhat competent mechanically.

Nick Goes Fishing

My nephew somewhere between Anchorage and Seattle

Kittyman

Trailer Park Boys - The Kittyman Sea Shanty
Trailer Park Boys

This is how a sea shanty should be sung. I mean, if you were singing sea shanties. In memory of Gus who left us yesterday.

Grand Rapids

Pergiel Building
1036 Butterworth St SW
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Diligent daughter and I were looking at the Pergiel building (zoom in and you can read the name in the stone near the top) on Google Maps the other day. Today we want to look at it again, but we can't remember where it is or what led us to it last time. Went and rooted through my files and couldn't find anything. Finally pulled up Google Maps and searched for Sacred Heart church. Then I remember that the building was built at an angle, and there was a big dirt parking lot there. I noticed Butterworth runs at an angle, so I pulled up the satellite view and presto - there it is.

I writing this down so I will have some record of where it is. My grandfather built this building to house his bakery before WW2. Rumor has it that back then he was a competitor to Sunshine, but then the war and rationing and the draft came along and running a bakery got to be pretty thin. My dad worked there for a while before the army gobbled him up and shipped him off to Alaska and the Pacific.

Bergen, Norway

Bergen, Norway

Looking west by southwest. Original image was 6,000 pixels across, I cut it down to 4,000 pixels.

Via younger son.

Airplanes North and South

Alaskan Float Plane

My nephew Nick, up in Alaska, had an accident with a jetski a couple of weeks ago and busted his foot pretty good. He's recovering but will be hobbling for a couple of months. And we get a photo of a neighbor's float plane.

Ultralight Aircraft on the beach in La Paz Mexico back in March

Via IAman

Reminiscence

War Surplus Bolt Action Rifles

We're sitting around the table after dinner reminiscing and my brother Andy tells us about the time our father took him along to visit a friend of his. It was duplex or something similar. They went down into the basement and the guy had a bunch of olive drab crates full of weapons packed in cosmoline. I hear this and it reminds me a something similar. It was a guy in duplex type housing and we went into the basement. There was a small opening high up in the wall that gave onto a crawl space. The guy picked up a rifle, aimed through this opening and fired a single round. The same guy, no doubt. This was in Seattle before Kennedy was shot, so early 60s. I was probably only about ten years old which means Andy must have only been about six.

Report from Alaska

Iaman forwards a report from my nephew:

The sleepy guy is a deckhand on Nick's boat. The guy in the water with the chain around his neck and a knife is Nick.

Nick called today to say "hi". He was on the boat, sitting in port waiting for the DNR [Alaska Department of Natural Resources]  announcement tomorrow on which fisheries would/or-not be open. Fishing has been spotty, but other than not making money he is happy.

Asking him what he does with his day, "not much". Then he tells me the boat had a "net in the wheel" ??? The boat got its net tangled in a prop. Nick having his NZ wetsuit with him grabs a "vicky" and dives under the boat no mask, no tank, but with a chain thrown over his shoulder as a dive belt. It takes many surfacings for air and a lot of slashing with the Vicky to clear the prop. Salt water doesn't bother his unmasked eyes. Estimates vary but it is said this bold action saved the Captain a couple thousand bucks, motoring, time, fuel, hiring a pro diver.

"Vicky"

A Vicky is a cheap knife made by Victornix, they are ubiquitous on the boats, used for everything from clearing props to slicing up ones meal. No more caring your personal blade, "there is typically a vicky in reach"

Speaking of meals and diving, Nick says if he doesn't go be a Gaucho in Argentina, or canoe the Mississippi, he may give a go at diving to harvest Sea cucumber for the Asian seafood trade. A new industry to me, cuke-divers are said to be paid well for their efforts, but google says it is fraught with risk. Nick knows of a local captain who is legend in the area. He runs his boat down the coast all the way to Mexico, fishing for whatever is paying: ablaone, shrimp, sea cukes, salmon, crab. Nick hopes to find out more about the cukes from him.

Adventure

Crossing the river

My nephew and his buds are out traipsing around in the wilds of New Zealand.

Nevis Road - Duffers Saddle sign

Lots of big rocks in that area.

Life in Alaska

My Nephew, a friend and their take for the day

They use snowmobiles for going places, not just for playing

Pic of the Day

FV (Fishing Vessel) Lady Samantha

Looks like my nephew is following in his sister's footsteps and has signed on to a fishing boat in Alaska.

Via Iaman

Liza Goes Fishing

FV Silver Spray

My niece has forsaken her government job in D.C. to go fishing in Alaska. I can understand her choice, but I have to admit to being a little surprised. However, it's not like she's never been to Alaska before.

Jack R. Gray, R.I.P.

Jack R. Gray, 1927-2017

My father-in-law passed away two weeks ago.

Rockwell City – Jack R. Gray 90, a longtime attorney, passed away Thursday, August 24, 2017 at Holy Spirit Retirement Home in Sioux City, Iowa. Memorial services will be 10:30 a.m. Monday, August 28, 2017 at St. Paul's Lutheran & Presbyterian Church, Rockwell City, with Pastor James Hoover Mossman officiating. Burial of cremains will be at Rosehill Cemetery. Visitation will be 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 27, at the Palmer & Swank Funeral Home, Rockwell City, and from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Twin Lakes Golf Club. In lieu of flowers memorials can be left to: Holy Spirit Retirement Home, St. Paul's Lutheran & Presbyterian Church, or Twin Lakes Golf Club.

Jack is survived by his son John C. Gray and his wife Di of Sioux City, Iowa; daughter Anne Pergiel and her husband Charles of Hillsboro, Oregon; 5 grandchildren, Joe (Stephanie) Canny, Ross, Kathryn, and John Pergiel, and Jack Calhoon Gray; great-grandson Calhoon Harold Canny; and other relatives and friends. He was preceded in death by his wife Audrey; son Todd Gray; his parents, Ross C. and Jennie Geist Gray; brothers, Ward, Lynn, and Dale Gray; and sister Jean Hull.

Jack Ross Gray was born August 9, 1927 at Rockwell City, Iowa. He graduated from Rockwell City High School, with the Class of 1945. Jack attended college in Iowa City and graduated from the College of Law at the University of Iowa in 1952. On September 7, 1952 he was united in marriage to Audrey A. Langland. The couple established their home in Rockwell City where Jack practiced law with his father, uncle, and brothers at the Gray & Gray Law Firm. He later practiced law with David Gidel at Gray & Gidel Law Firm. Audrey passed away in 2013, and later that year Jack retired from law. In 2014, he became a resident of Holy Spirit Retirement Home in Sioux City. Jack was a member of St. Paul's Lutheran & Presbyterian Church, Twin Lakes Golf Club, Rockwell City Rotary Club, and the Iowa State Bar Association. He was also past County Attorney, and past City Attorney. He enjoyed playing snooker, bridge, and cribbage. Jack collected nearly everything, and he loved his hometown.

Huh

My daughter got married last month. Actually, she got married last January, but that was just a legal ceremony in the courthouse, done to keep the immigration authorities happy. Last month we hosted a big party here in our backyard. She was originally thinking about having it at a resort in Mexico as some people would be coming from Latin America, and flying from the East Coast of the USA would cost about the same. So she picked out a small resort that looked like it could accommodate us and we could afford it, but we were unable to make contact. Then I stopped by my dentist's office and I picked up a copy of Vogue (because what the hell, I'm in the dentist's office) and I see that this very same resort is featured in this current issue. Well, that kind of explains why we haven't heard back from them. This story in Vogue has no doubt caused them to be flooded with requests. Good for them, bad for us.
    So we went back to the drawing board. Weddings are big business. Reserving a commercial space requires planning ahead like a year in advance, and ain't nobody got time for that, so we decided we would hold it in our backyard. It would be a tight fit for all the people she planned to invite, but with a little work it could be made to serve.
   The party came off way better than I expected. My brothers all showed up which was kind of amazing since I don't think the four of us have all been in the same place since I don't know when. High school maybe, when we all lived on the farm?
    About half of the people that were invited responded and showed up. Some flew in from as far away as the East Coast. One couple was from Buenos Aires, but I think they were in the USA anyway.
    Anyway, it was a big deal, a big success and a little expensive. It cost about as much as my net income from a year of working, back when I was working. Roughly half of the expense went to landscaping contractors for work on transforming the backyard into a green paradise.
    Things were a little crazy this summer what with all the preparations. My daughter hired a wedding planner which was probably the best idea ever. Saved me from getting drug into all kinds of discussions that I had no interest in. Dealing with the landscapers was more than enough for me. That and the low-level, background agonizing about the money was all I could handle.

    So. My daughter got married. Then my wife pointed out that I haven't worked in ten years. That could be true, I haven't checked. I started collecting Social Security a couple of years ago so I guess that means I'm retired. I still have a vague hope of doing something useful, but given the lack of employment I suppose writing this blog will have to do.
    I signed up for Google's Adsense and Amazon's referral service a while back, just to see if I was missing out on some free money. I just checked and I wasn't, so no more ads or money grubbing links. I think you need like a million hits a day to make that kind of thing worthwhile. I get more like two or three hundred.

   I thought about stopping this blog, but then I realized that while part of it is telling people about the cool / interesting / weird stuff I come across, another part is that it is just a place for me to record my thoughts, so I will keep on.

    I do like programming, but I have no enthusiasm for all the flash-bang gimcracks that garner all the attention these days. If I ever get my Linux box working again, I might try writing a game for smart phones.

   Meanwhile, I'm trying to eliminate all blackberries from the backyard. All the work done over the summer has reduced them from a Mongolian horde to small gang of street punks and if I persist I should be able to exterminate them. One theory is that you have to dig out the roots in order to destroy them. While that probably works, I have to wonder. A few years ago a small squad of men armed with weed-eaters made a pass through the swamp. The droning of miniature four-engined bombers went on for days, or so it seemed. They came back again the next year and the blackberries that seemed to infest the swamp seem to be gone. I'm doing what I can, but I think the key element is persistence, and only time will tell on that.

   I'm also trying to get rid of some of the junk we have accumulated. There is a neighborhood garage sale in the spring and that is what I am shooting for.

Virtual Mother's Day

The Fixx - One Thing Leads To Another - 1983
The whole mad damily went to the Irving Street Kitchen on Sunday for brunch to celebrate Mother's Day. Yes, it was a week early, but the way things get jammed up on holidays we decided we should get our celebrating done early. Dutiful daughter took the initiative and got us booked in on a day when we might be able to have a meal in a timely manner.
    I suspect it's very trendy. It all looks brand new, except all the authentically old stuff they use in furnishing the place. They seated the five of us in a booth with burlap curtains hanging from an iron pipe curtain rod. The table looked to be a two inch slab of maple cut from five foot diameter tree.. It was very loud. I noticed this song playing and I thought this-isn't-my-father's kind of place. I guess it was okay with the kids, but only because it was the middle of the day. I didn't mention that this song was older than they are, not that they would have cared. At the time I didn't know just how old this song is.
    The food was fine, though a little light on meat in the breakfast department, but then meat costs money, so it's probably just as well. The tab was a little warm - $100 for the five of us - but not bad for downtown trendy on Sunday, and some of us were drinking.