Ok, I don’t know who has been reading this thing, but I looked at the traffic for the last month and was a bit surprised to see as many hits as I did. ]

I re-visited my blog just to take me back, because now I am in Deadmonton, Canada, working, waiting to leave. I haven’t got caught up in the grind quite like the last few times I returned here, so that is good. Three day weekends every week, y’know, but it just isn’t the same as when you are away.

When you are away, every day seems so much longer, more interesting, colorful, and vital to your being. Here, there is nothing new. Not so much anyways. There is no challenge to getting things done. You just do them. Boring.

I have spent quite a bit of time this year building a set of wind turbines from scratch. And I do mean from scratch. www.windstuffnow.com has a plan for a 500W wind generator I found about four years ago while poking around on the net. They supplied the magnets and the plans, I did the rest. There was quite a bit of work involved, but now I know all there is to know about how to this, and how to that. Learning how to fish is more important that ordering the meal.

I built two of them, and they both work. I have every intention of using them on a piece of property down in Panama. It doesn’t have to be wind to turn it, it could be water, waves, weights, you name it, the list is endless for a resourceful mind. Couple that with the battery out of an electric forklift (the really good ones that last for years and years), and Panamas’ electricity cartel can kiss my ass. :>

Whoever said necessity was the mother of invention? It’s more rebellion than anything else.

The other thing I have been doing this year is setting up a wood shop in my garage. Now, I won’t be pumping out china cabinets right away, but I do get awfully tired of looking in the stores and seeing what passes for furniture nowadays. Especially with the trade I am in.

So, for now, a table saw, a mitre saw, a router, a small fortune in bits, clamps, and odds and ends, and I am ready to build little “learner” projects. A tool chest for all my car tools. A recycle box for the kitchen. A set of patio furniture. Rolling islands for the garage. Little projects that will help me learn to plan, draw, and hone a few deliberately abandoned skills. Stuff I won’t have to stare at every day, y’know. There is nothing worse than that little flaw in the baseboards directly across from the toilet. Especially if you put it there!

After a while, I think I should be able to envision things a little better, and then will come the truly creative pieces, made to last, built without profit in mind. This is the beginning of my hobby. Can you imagine what I will be capable of in twenty years?

I can’t.