Kitchen Renovation - Phase 1

We needed a new refrigerator. The old one was getting on in years, and starting to look worse for wear. It still worked fine, but the plastic, and duct tape, were beginning to fail occasionally allowing items to fall out when the door was opened. We could use a little larger one too.

The existing space was measured, and an appropriate new appliance was purchased. I wasn't home when it was delivered, and was surprised to find that door stops had to be removed to fit it through the openings. What's worse, is that they cut the flooring to make it fit under the upper cabinet. Apparently, what was supposed to be about 1/4" of clearance, was 1/8" too high. So much for published specs.

So, here we were with the floor ruined, and upper cabinet doors that could not be opened because the top of the fridge was humped up slightly in the middle. Also, since the unit could not be tipped back, the door fell open, not closed. It was not a good situation, so I decided to modify the kitchen.

The first idea was to cut the upper cabinet at the bottom of the middle shelf and shorten the doors. This would have fixed the height problem, but another issue had arisen. The new fridge was so deep, that it made accessing the range on the opposite wall difficult. With the oven door open, there was very little room to stand. Next solution was to move to another wall.

The adjacent wall had only upper cupboards, and a table underneath. We didn't need the table, since all eating could easily be moved to the dining room. With the bottom two shelves from the middle cupboard removed, there would be plenty of space for the new fridge.

The removed shelves were, of course, the perfect size to close up the sides.

With the space made, all that was required was electricity. There was a rarely used outlet on the opposite side of the wall, that connected to an unused outlet for an AC wall clock we no longer had. The refrigerator was never was on its own circuit, and the new one was supposed to be much more energy effecient than any that had been in the kitchen before anyway.

I found center of the two studs, and carefully cut out a piece of drywall that was saved to go back in the opening.

A new box was installed, and a wire run from the former livingroom wall clock location.

A test fit showed lots of clearance for the new fridge.

The portable dishwasher could now occupy the former refrigerator location. This meant lots of room for accessing the range again.

All that was left to do was plaster and paint all the kitchen, which includes the back entrance.

I should point out that it was only a couple years before this that we had freshened up the kitchen with all new hardware, mouldings and paint. This is a room that seems to need constant attention. At least I was done - for now.

Boondocking vs Campgrounds

Boondocking vs Campgrounds: This is a copy of the email I sent to the Central Newfoundland Morning Show on CBC Radio. They had done an interview with someone wanting to ban RVs from mall parking lots.

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I only caught the tail end of the conversation about campers overnighting on mall parking lots, so I may have missed something (I'll DL the podcast and listen to all of it), however, I felt another view was in order.

We are doing the "vacation at home" thing, and have had to change our plans three times this summer because the various campgrounds we wanted to stay in were full. We had the options of trying elsewhere, or staying home, but what is a visitor from out of province to do when the closest park is booked up?

Getting to this island is expensive, fuel prices are expensive, and staying in a campground every night is expensive. Having the option to boondock a few nights a week may make the difference between a tourist being able to come here or not. Also, having these people in a town generally means they will be spending money there. It may not the the local campground, but they need fuel and food, and may take in some of the culturial offerings and engage in other activities available to tourists.

The few campgrounds I've stayed in since buying our little travel trailer last fall have been far removed from what I consider camping. Sites are close to each other, and you have almost no privacy, or experience of nature. You might as well be on a mall parking lot. If you take this even further, eventually canoeist and kayakers will be banned from setting up a tent on a shoreline close to a community. At least RVers eventually use are dumping station, what are those tenters doing with their waste? Ban them all! :-)

Here are a few links on the subject:

"While RV parks are the best accommodations for RVers, sometimes commercial parks are full, or perhaps the RVer simply cannot find a local park, especially if it is late in the evening. Other issues come into play as well. For instance, how tired is the RV driver? Were it not for easily accessible public parking lots and other similar locations that offer a resting place to RVers, you would see an increased accident rate. Far too often, RVers will drive too long, too late, or continue searching for an RV park way past their safety and comfort zone. Knowing that they are welcome to pull into a parking lot and get a few hours of rest anytime of the day or night is an enormous safety net for the traveler."
http://ping.fm/UfV4i

"Score a victory for RVers in their battle against the state of Maine. In a period of less than a week, the state legislature introduced a bill to ban overnight stays in RVs in any public parking lot in the state and then quickly killed the idea."
http://ping.fm/sl3k7

"I say so called because it sure doesn't look like a "Park" to me! Much more like a parking lot! Why? When you have a rig with all the amenities of home, that you can take darn near anywhere, why drive from your crowded city streets back home, only to park in a crowded "parking lot!""
http://ping.fm/7WTZH

"Defined: What is boondocking? (Free Camping)"
http://ping.fm/xCRxw

(Original Blog Post: http://haliburton.homelinux.net/strofficeview/?p=87)

100PUC W4/D2/C1 and Winter Activities

100PUC W4/D2/C1 and Winter Activities: I put off doing push ups for a day to allow my neck to heal a bit more, and today I felt it was good enough to try day 2 of week 4. It took everything I had in me, but I was able to once more complete the minimums, for 72 in total. I have a feeling I'll be repeating week 4.

This morning I went for a ride on my father-in-law's snowmobile. I usually get out on it once or twice a winter. Today I wanted to scout out some of the trails to see which were suitable for skate skiing. I took the rail bed up to Lewisporte Junction and back. From the industrial park I cut across to the bogs and made my way up to Scissors Pond and then into Airways Pond, before returning home for lunch.

After the meal had some time to settle, I grabbed my skate skis and the dog, jumped aboard the truck, and drove up to the end of town. The route I chose is the 3km one I use in the summer for sprinting. It was the smoothest, and the flattest, for my learning how to skate on snow.

For the past 4 years I have been using a cheap pair of non-wax/fish scale, traditional style skis. I bought them to compete in the first winter Raid Avalon adventure race. It took me a while to get used to having these long sticks on my feet, and I fell down often. I do not fall anymore, and take them all over the place, treating them much like snowshoes. They are, however,very slow, and showing their age.

Last spring, just before the final flake of snow melted, I bought a nice skate ski package from The Outfitters in St. John's. Being end of season, I saved hundreds of dollars. Being the end of the season, I was only able to use them once, briefly, on some slush before putting them away.

This winter I have been impatiently waiting for snow enough to accumulate to get out and really use them. I've risked my old skis three times on exposed rocks and sticks, and rough trails, since conditions have not been suitable for skate skiing until now, and this is still far from ideal.

Today I managed to get in a bit of training and muscle adapting to this new style, but I had to revert back to the old diagonal motions often. It was probably 30% skate and 70% traditional. Lifting the ski after pushing, and keeping it from digging into the loose snow was a challenge. I could only get in a couple dozen strides before pulling the skis back together and shuffling for a bit to catch my breath, and let the muscles relax from the new efforts.

I was surprised how well I was able to diagonal ski on these all glide skis. There are no fish scales or kick wax to push against, yet I could move as fast, if not faster than with my old skis. My nice new poles with the comfy hand straps had a lot to do with this. This gave my arms more of a workout too. Going down the slight grade on the way back, I was able to just glide and double pole for a while at a fun speed.

While not yet able to skate ski any real distance, and not at all graceful, it will come in time. There are still a few weeks of winter remaining, and each outing will bring improvement. This winter should allow me to build a good base for next winter, and I have yet to fall down with the new skis.

(Original Blog Post: -*http://haliburton.homelinux.net/strofficeview/?p=82)

Lightweight Linux

Lightweight Linux: The computer I am using for my web server is an old Compaq DeskPro 4000 I bought second-hand many years ago. It has an Intel Pentium II 233MMX CPU, 256MB RAM, and a 13GB HDD. It is running the standard LAMP: Debian Etch GNU/Linux, Apache2, MySQL, and PHP.

It came off server duties for a little while while I tried to make it a desktop system for general family and guest use, but even with XFCE or Fluxbox I was not happy with the speed. As a web server it is also slow, but I can live with it.

For a while it was command line only, but I got tired of using wget to download CMS updates and so on. I'd have to use another computer to edit the HTML files, or suffer through Nano. Yesterday I decided to put Xwindow on it, and go with the Fluxbox window manager. This combination should not slow down the system too much, and I only have to start X when I need it.

On the command line I used:

File Manager: Midnight Commander (MC)

Email: Mutt

IRC: irssi (usually through Screen)

Text Editor: Nano

Web Browser: Lynx

Package Installer: Apt-Get (sometimes Aptitude)

I will continue to use these applications, but now with the GUI installed, I wanted some lightweight graphical programs too. They have to take up very little HDD space, and not have too much overhead with running so as to slow down the serving of web pages too much.

Here is what I have decided to start with:

File Manager: ROX-filer

Text Editor: NEdit

HTML Editor: Geany

Web Browser: Dillo

Audio: XMMS

Image Viewers: feh and GQview

Those were installed today, and will be tried out over the next little while. If anyone has a suggestion for another I should look at, leave a comment.

(Original Blog Post: http://haliburton.homelinux.net/strofficeview/?p=74)

Last Bicycle Ride of the Year - Maybe!

I pulled my bicycle out of the shed this afternoon to go for what might be the last ride of 2004. The temperature was slightly above freezing, and winds were very light from the NE. It had been maybe two weeks since I was last out, and that was on the railbed up to Lewiporte Junction and back. Those gentler climbs are better for me with my asthma than what you face on the roads, especially when it is cooler. I like heading into any wind on the way out so that it is at my back on the return trip. That is why I chose to head towards Little Burnt Bay.

I had dressed in similar clothing to what I would wear cross-country skiing. It is always a challenge deciding what to put on when faced with a high output activity requiring nothing too bulky, while keeping warm. By the time I got to Byron's house I was already cold and tired, so I stopped in for a quick visit. The hot coffee was just what I needed. Before leaving I switched from fingerless sailing gloves to cotton glove. A hat was in my pocket, just in case.

The bike, a Schwinn Santa Monica comfort style, needs to be tuned up again. The back brakes barely slow me down, and the shifters are not changing gears properly. It could use some oil and tightening here and there as well. Lots of things I could do myself, if I only had a place to work. I suppose I'll get a shed/garage someday. For an inexpensive bicycle (under $300), it has served me well though. It has been used for 5 adventure races so far, and all the training and recreational trips in between over the past 15 or so months I've had it.

I try to keep my speed above 15kph, but was barely able to stay above 10 going up the hill past the mussel bed turn. That's the steepest part of this road, and I'm happy to always make it to the top without having to get off and walk. While going through Embree the chimney smoke from all the wood furnace fires was almost enough to choke me. There wasn't enough wind to make a difference as it hung close to the ground. At times I had to hold my breath until I made it through a particularly bad spot.

It didn't look like I would make it all the way to Little Burnt Bay. I didn't want to overdo it, and had planned to be home by 4:00 anyway. The evenings get dark rather early, and will continue to get shorter for another 5 weeks. Since Colin lived at the end of Embree, I thought I would go that far and visit with him, but seeing his car at the church, I decided to carry on to Foxes Dock, the place from which we launched many a kayaking trip over the past season. I paused their briefly to look out over the water and take a few sips of Gatorade.

Riding home was slightly warmer with the hills not so steep. I finished the little over 26km in 1 hour and 18 minutes (20kph average), and put the bike back in the shed until the next opportunity. Monday we are expecting up to 10cm of snow.