Update
Sep. 3rd, 2025 09:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ranunculusThe garden is still pouring out produce. I've canned most of the things I really need and now it is just a matter of giving it away.
Cleaned up quite a lot of horse manure yesterday so the compost pile is about full. It is composting away at about 120F, which is a nice rate but might not be quite hot enough to kill seeds. Sigh. Must clean out second side so it can take over the new compost duties.
Looked all over town for parts for the dust collection system and utterly failed to find any. The closest I got was a nice toilet flange, which, for $5 I brought home and will probably use. I then went back to the Grizzly tool site and found the accessory pages, which had exactly what I needed. They are on the way.
Ebay locked me out of their site just after I put up the Starlink setup. Then they demanded personal info to re-establish my login. I declined. Told the AI bot that I would give them the answers that I had set up for my account and nothing more. Maybe in two or three months the policies will change.
Every now and then I get scam calls that want to help me with my credit. I'm very enthusiastic, but they first have to round up a good chainsaw crew for the Ranch and give me contact info and the time they will arrive. Usually they hang up after a couple of minutes of this. I should probably slip in a couple of words about them trying to ruin my credit score... ;)
It is time to grab a combination lock and go down to the cow corrals. I'm expecting non-local campers tonight, someone I know who is coming through on their way to an endurance ride.
Cleaned up quite a lot of horse manure yesterday so the compost pile is about full. It is composting away at about 120F, which is a nice rate but might not be quite hot enough to kill seeds. Sigh. Must clean out second side so it can take over the new compost duties.
Looked all over town for parts for the dust collection system and utterly failed to find any. The closest I got was a nice toilet flange, which, for $5 I brought home and will probably use. I then went back to the Grizzly tool site and found the accessory pages, which had exactly what I needed. They are on the way.
Ebay locked me out of their site just after I put up the Starlink setup. Then they demanded personal info to re-establish my login. I declined. Told the AI bot that I would give them the answers that I had set up for my account and nothing more. Maybe in two or three months the policies will change.
Every now and then I get scam calls that want to help me with my credit. I'm very enthusiastic, but they first have to round up a good chainsaw crew for the Ranch and give me contact info and the time they will arrive. Usually they hang up after a couple of minutes of this. I should probably slip in a couple of words about them trying to ruin my credit score... ;)
It is time to grab a combination lock and go down to the cow corrals. I'm expecting non-local campers tonight, someone I know who is coming through on their way to an endurance ride.
On racism
Sep. 3rd, 2025 10:21 amrebeccmeisterYesterday I read siderea's post about the US's current vice president, and felt a deep sense of horror.
But it wasn't just that post, it's that it led me to read the Wikipedia entry on the Human Biodiversity Institute, which I hadn't known about, and whenever I encounter horrible misappropriations of biological language, I get incredibly angry.
My introduction to Lysenkoism was through The Dialectical Biologist, by Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin, whose thinking and writing I respect. After learning about Lysenkoism through that book, I did read a bit more about it, but didn't dig especially deep. I am now thinking I should sit down and read Lysenko's Ghost, so I've ordered a copy.
If you don't know anything about Lysenkoism, either, it might be best to understand that it was a Russian State-imposed philosophy on biological trait heritability that shares characteristics with the Lamarckian concept of the inheritance of acquired characteristics (and apparently calling it Lamarckism is potentially a misnomer anyway?). Anyway, it contributed to some really horrible decisions about crop management in Russia, that led to widespread starvation.
Those who teach introductory biology from a "history and nature of science" standpoint will often contrast the Lamarckian perspective with a Darwinian view of the genetic basis of trait inheritance - i.e. that characteristics have some sort of fixed, heritable genetic basis that is passed on from parent to offspring, et cetera et cetera.
Anyway. The contemporary scientific understanding of trait inheritance actually falls between the so-called Lamarckian perspective and strict genetic inheritance; phenotypes reflect a combination of influences by genetic information, epigenetic information (e.g. DNA methylation patterns that impact expression), and environmental influences, including how those influences unfold over the course of an organism's development.
But human beings have a long, horrible history of misunderstanding and misappropriating this scientific understanding of trait inheritance when it comes to applying it to our thinking about human traits. Hello, eugenics. Ugh.
I talk about these topics in my introductory biology course, because I think all of this is crucially important for people to understand and think about, regardless of what they go on to do next. I do think that what I teach could be viewed as a form of indoctrination; I am trying to teach people how to think about things. (I am never, ever going to tell them what to believe, however!)
In one of the last lectures of the semester, I talk about how "race" is a social construct (NOT a biological one), and about how as a concept it has been used to harm and oppress people. The problem is it's a bad idea that refuses to die, because humans have extremely strong ingroup/outgroup biases by default.
At the end of the day I probably do need to know about the existence of these kinds of wrong-headed supremacist groups that are co-opting the language of biology for their stupid and horrible ideas. And in this particular instance it was important to read all the way through the Wikipedia entry to learn how other marginalized groups are viewed/portrayed, too.
Also at the end of the day, the fundamental actions to take remain unchanged. I will continue to do my educational work (including educating myself!). I will continue to try and talk with and protect and help people (and the environment) where and when I can. And I will continue to try and ensure my own survival and well-being so I can carry on with it all.
siderea's post about the US's current vice president, and felt a deep sense of horror.But it wasn't just that post, it's that it led me to read the Wikipedia entry on the Human Biodiversity Institute, which I hadn't known about, and whenever I encounter horrible misappropriations of biological language, I get incredibly angry.
My introduction to Lysenkoism was through The Dialectical Biologist, by Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin, whose thinking and writing I respect. After learning about Lysenkoism through that book, I did read a bit more about it, but didn't dig especially deep. I am now thinking I should sit down and read Lysenko's Ghost, so I've ordered a copy.
If you don't know anything about Lysenkoism, either, it might be best to understand that it was a Russian State-imposed philosophy on biological trait heritability that shares characteristics with the Lamarckian concept of the inheritance of acquired characteristics (and apparently calling it Lamarckism is potentially a misnomer anyway?). Anyway, it contributed to some really horrible decisions about crop management in Russia, that led to widespread starvation.
Those who teach introductory biology from a "history and nature of science" standpoint will often contrast the Lamarckian perspective with a Darwinian view of the genetic basis of trait inheritance - i.e. that characteristics have some sort of fixed, heritable genetic basis that is passed on from parent to offspring, et cetera et cetera.
Anyway. The contemporary scientific understanding of trait inheritance actually falls between the so-called Lamarckian perspective and strict genetic inheritance; phenotypes reflect a combination of influences by genetic information, epigenetic information (e.g. DNA methylation patterns that impact expression), and environmental influences, including how those influences unfold over the course of an organism's development.
But human beings have a long, horrible history of misunderstanding and misappropriating this scientific understanding of trait inheritance when it comes to applying it to our thinking about human traits. Hello, eugenics. Ugh.
I talk about these topics in my introductory biology course, because I think all of this is crucially important for people to understand and think about, regardless of what they go on to do next. I do think that what I teach could be viewed as a form of indoctrination; I am trying to teach people how to think about things. (I am never, ever going to tell them what to believe, however!)
In one of the last lectures of the semester, I talk about how "race" is a social construct (NOT a biological one), and about how as a concept it has been used to harm and oppress people. The problem is it's a bad idea that refuses to die, because humans have extremely strong ingroup/outgroup biases by default.
At the end of the day I probably do need to know about the existence of these kinds of wrong-headed supremacist groups that are co-opting the language of biology for their stupid and horrible ideas. And in this particular instance it was important to read all the way through the Wikipedia entry to learn how other marginalized groups are viewed/portrayed, too.
Also at the end of the day, the fundamental actions to take remain unchanged. I will continue to do my educational work (including educating myself!). I will continue to try and talk with and protect and help people (and the environment) where and when I can. And I will continue to try and ensure my own survival and well-being so I can carry on with it all.
Greetings from just before dawn.
Sep. 3rd, 2025 06:12 amsistawendyToday I woke up after a decent night's sleep — at 0330. I woke up at the same time yesterday after a not-so-decent night's sleep. Goth dammit. Why must I have such rock-solid circadian rhythm? Why?
Interesting Links for 03-09-2025
Sep. 3rd, 2025 12:00 pmandrewducker- 1. Blocky Planet — Making Minecraft Spherical
- (tags:Minecraft sphere )
- 2. Apologies: You Have Reached the End of Your Free-Trial Period of America!
- (tags:satire doom USA )
- 3. Edinburgh primary school mobile phone ban set to go ahead later this year
- (tags:school Edinburgh Scotland phones children )
- 4. Under-16s to be banned from buying high-caffeine energy drinks in England
- (tags:caffeine children England regulation )
- 5. Starmer appoints ex-director of anti trans campaign group as as comms director
- (tags:LGBT Labour bigotry transgender OhForFucksSake )
- 6. Dubstep artist Skrillex could protect against mosquito bites
- (tags:music mosquito funny headline )
Girl Genius for Wednesday, September 03, 2025
Sep. 3rd, 2025 04:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
girlgenius_main_feedThe Girl Genius comic for Wednesday, September 03, 2025 has been posted.
The taste test [food]
Sep. 2nd, 2025 01:22 pmrebeccmeisterAt least two people were curious to learn about how reconstituted coconut water powder compared to coconut water from a carton.
We did not do an extensive taste test, but I reconstituted some of the desiccated stuff, and then put it in the fridge so it would be at the same temperature as the carton we currently have on hand (Field Day organic brand). The powder went into solution very easily, which is a very different experience from reconstituting coconut milk powder or just powdered milk in general.
I poured amounts of each type into identical fancy teacups, and then S and I tasted them both (I didn't tell him which was which until after initial tastes, but I was not a blind taster myself). We both thought the reconstituted stuff tasted a bit smoother and more flavorful than the Field Day.
So, for anyone who might have wondered, the reconstituted stuff seems totally fine and drinkable. I think some of the other brands of coconut water in cartons might be a bit more tasty than the Field Day stuff is, but I also think that anyone who switched over to the powder from the cartons would be satisfied with the experience.
But you might want to be aware that S and I are often happy to drink Tang rather than other sports drinks, when we are in situations that call for liquid salts, sugars, and maybe even some trace vitamins and minerals.
We are, after all, mostly just using coconut water to make paloma cocktails these days.
We did not do an extensive taste test, but I reconstituted some of the desiccated stuff, and then put it in the fridge so it would be at the same temperature as the carton we currently have on hand (Field Day organic brand). The powder went into solution very easily, which is a very different experience from reconstituting coconut milk powder or just powdered milk in general.
I poured amounts of each type into identical fancy teacups, and then S and I tasted them both (I didn't tell him which was which until after initial tastes, but I was not a blind taster myself). We both thought the reconstituted stuff tasted a bit smoother and more flavorful than the Field Day.
So, for anyone who might have wondered, the reconstituted stuff seems totally fine and drinkable. I think some of the other brands of coconut water in cartons might be a bit more tasty than the Field Day stuff is, but I also think that anyone who switched over to the powder from the cartons would be satisfied with the experience.
But you might want to be aware that S and I are often happy to drink Tang rather than other sports drinks, when we are in situations that call for liquid salts, sugars, and maybe even some trace vitamins and minerals.
We are, after all, mostly just using coconut water to make paloma cocktails these days.
PSA text from celli
Sep. 4th, 2025 03:55 amconulyThe IRS invites the public to participate in an anonymous feedback survey on tax preparation and filing options, which will run through Sept. 5, 2025.
The survey is being conducted as part of the Department of Treasury and the IRS’s efforts to fulfill a reporting requirement to Congress under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act. The law directs Treasury to deliver a report to Congress by Oct. 2, 2025, on several key issues related to free tax filing options for the public.
Treasury and the IRS encourage taxpayers to share their perspectives and help inform this important congressional report.
Translation: We have to report to Congress about the public's interest in Free File (filing directly on the IRS website) because they want to quash it, so here's a survey!
survey here
There are a couple of leading questions that I personally found HIGHLY entertaining. But I do recommend that if you are an American taxpayer you take a look at it/take it.
There was one question that asked what's important in filing taxes, and it had an "other" option that opened a handy text window, so I used that text window to tell them all about how filing taxes is a waste of time and money when the IRS already has all that information. There is absolutely no reason they can't just send you a bill or a refund every year, with a receipt, and you'd only have to file if you had to correct errors or had income or deductions that had been unreported for whatever reason.
The survey is being conducted as part of the Department of Treasury and the IRS’s efforts to fulfill a reporting requirement to Congress under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act. The law directs Treasury to deliver a report to Congress by Oct. 2, 2025, on several key issues related to free tax filing options for the public.
Treasury and the IRS encourage taxpayers to share their perspectives and help inform this important congressional report.
Translation: We have to report to Congress about the public's interest in Free File (filing directly on the IRS website) because they want to quash it, so here's a survey!
survey here
There are a couple of leading questions that I personally found HIGHLY entertaining. But I do recommend that if you are an American taxpayer you take a look at it/take it.
There was one question that asked what's important in filing taxes, and it had an "other" option that opened a handy text window, so I used that text window to tell them all about how filing taxes is a waste of time and money when the IRS already has all that information. There is absolutely no reason they can't just send you a bill or a refund every year, with a receipt, and you'd only have to file if you had to correct errors or had income or deductions that had been unreported for whatever reason.
Does anybody have an explanatory link?
Sep. 2nd, 2025 09:16 pmconulySo, responses here are not terribly helpful.
The OP is specifically confused about the use of the prhase "such as" in the highlighted sentence. I said that this is not wrong, it's just formal and old-fashioned, but like most Americans I've had very little formal education in English grammar and with google I still can't find either the words to define it or a few well-placed citations by prestigious authors.
The OP is specifically confused about the use of the prhase "such as" in the highlighted sentence. I said that this is not wrong, it's just formal and old-fashioned, but like most Americans I've had very little formal education in English grammar and with google I still can't find either the words to define it or a few well-placed citations by prestigious authors.
N.A.M. Rodgers, The Wooden World
Sep. 1st, 2025 03:31 pmsanguinityFrom N.A.M. Rodger's The Wooden World: Anatomy of the Georgian Navy (1986), copied here for my reference, since this needs to go back to the libary. (Do not take copying as endorsement, please.)
( Homosexuality in the Georgian Royal Navy )
( Homosexuality in the Georgian Royal Navy )
Recent Reading
Sep. 1st, 2025 03:13 pmsanguinityAlison Bechdel, Spent: A Comic Novel (2025)
The Dykes to Watch Out For cast returns, absent Mo, who is replaced by "Alison," a neurotic graphic novelist who is suffering (not very graciously) through the indignity of her bestselling graphic novel about her father's death, Death and Taxidermy, being made into a hit TV show. Meanwhile, Alison is struggling to write $UM: An Accounting, a graphic memoir about the role of money in Alison's life.
(...which is, presumably, Spent itself. Spent does talk a little bit about Alison's finances, but I didn't think it had much to say on the subject that was terribly insightful.)
Mo always annoyed me back in the day, and I don't like her doppleganger "Alison" any better. In fact, "Alison's" griping about the success of Death and Taxidermy leaves me wondering if Alison Bechdel resents those of us who loved the musical Fun Home? Idk, it all just left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
However, I loved getting to hang out with the core the DTWOF squad: Ginger, Lois, Sparrow, and Stuart. Sparrow and Stuart's offspring, J.R. (they/them), is college-aged now, and absolutely steals the show. They are so righteous and black-and-white and angry. The kid believes that the older DTWOF generation are all bourgeois sell-outs, and everything the older generation says only confirms it. J.R. is aces at pushing all the DTWOF crew's buttons, and I love the kid to pieces.
Neil Sharpson (illus. Dan Santat), Don't Trust Fish (2025)
Children's book riffing on the cladistic incoherence of "fish" and launching from there into a full-blown conspiracy theory. (After all, every conspiracy is fueled by a seed of truth, is it not?) I note, however, that this conspiracy theory serves a second purpose as pro-crab propaganda, and internal evidence suggests that the book may even have been written by a crab! (The author's bio strenuously denies this, but the book's pro-crab agenda cannot be denied.) Those of us well up on our evolutionary biology, however, note that "crabs" are also cladistically incoherent, and thus no more trustworthy than fish. Hmmm...
Moral: trust neither fish nor crabs, and most of all, do not trust this book.
Jonathan Green, The Vulgar Tongue: Green's History of Slang (2015)
Less a history of slang, and more a history of lexicographer's sources for slang. Beginning with beggar books of the fifteenth and sixteeth centuries, Green traces the ever-expanding sources for English slang up through the present moment. Early on, sources mostly consist of moralizing glossaries serving the dual purpose of titillation and warning; later on there were lexicographies for lexicography's sake; eventually, however, slang expanded into plays, novels, lyrics, and newspapers. There are dedicated chapters for the slang of Cockneys, Australians, Gays, African-Americans, the military, and other groups, as well as a dedicated chapter on (hetero)sexual slang. Most chapters give a smattering of newly coined words from each source, plus a discussion of how the source (and its description or use of slang) fit into its societal moment. For some topics, he'll also discuss trends, influences, and evolution in the slang itself.
( Random notes )
Anyway, it was a fascinating read, lots of good gossip, learned a ton of stuff, nice multi-century tour of the underbelly of Anglophone social history, and you could build a suggested reading list from this that would keep you going for the rest of your life, easily.
The Dykes to Watch Out For cast returns, absent Mo, who is replaced by "Alison," a neurotic graphic novelist who is suffering (not very graciously) through the indignity of her bestselling graphic novel about her father's death, Death and Taxidermy, being made into a hit TV show. Meanwhile, Alison is struggling to write $UM: An Accounting, a graphic memoir about the role of money in Alison's life.
(...which is, presumably, Spent itself. Spent does talk a little bit about Alison's finances, but I didn't think it had much to say on the subject that was terribly insightful.)
Mo always annoyed me back in the day, and I don't like her doppleganger "Alison" any better. In fact, "Alison's" griping about the success of Death and Taxidermy leaves me wondering if Alison Bechdel resents those of us who loved the musical Fun Home? Idk, it all just left me with a bad taste in my mouth.
However, I loved getting to hang out with the core the DTWOF squad: Ginger, Lois, Sparrow, and Stuart. Sparrow and Stuart's offspring, J.R. (they/them), is college-aged now, and absolutely steals the show. They are so righteous and black-and-white and angry. The kid believes that the older DTWOF generation are all bourgeois sell-outs, and everything the older generation says only confirms it. J.R. is aces at pushing all the DTWOF crew's buttons, and I love the kid to pieces.
Neil Sharpson (illus. Dan Santat), Don't Trust Fish (2025)
Children's book riffing on the cladistic incoherence of "fish" and launching from there into a full-blown conspiracy theory. (After all, every conspiracy is fueled by a seed of truth, is it not?) I note, however, that this conspiracy theory serves a second purpose as pro-crab propaganda, and internal evidence suggests that the book may even have been written by a crab! (The author's bio strenuously denies this, but the book's pro-crab agenda cannot be denied.) Those of us well up on our evolutionary biology, however, note that "crabs" are also cladistically incoherent, and thus no more trustworthy than fish. Hmmm...
Moral: trust neither fish nor crabs, and most of all, do not trust this book.
Jonathan Green, The Vulgar Tongue: Green's History of Slang (2015)
Less a history of slang, and more a history of lexicographer's sources for slang. Beginning with beggar books of the fifteenth and sixteeth centuries, Green traces the ever-expanding sources for English slang up through the present moment. Early on, sources mostly consist of moralizing glossaries serving the dual purpose of titillation and warning; later on there were lexicographies for lexicography's sake; eventually, however, slang expanded into plays, novels, lyrics, and newspapers. There are dedicated chapters for the slang of Cockneys, Australians, Gays, African-Americans, the military, and other groups, as well as a dedicated chapter on (hetero)sexual slang. Most chapters give a smattering of newly coined words from each source, plus a discussion of how the source (and its description or use of slang) fit into its societal moment. For some topics, he'll also discuss trends, influences, and evolution in the slang itself.
( Random notes )
Anyway, it was a fascinating read, lots of good gossip, learned a ton of stuff, nice multi-century tour of the underbelly of Anglophone social history, and you could build a suggested reading list from this that would keep you going for the rest of your life, easily.
The Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, Vol. 2
Sep. 1st, 2025 03:57 pmmarycatelli posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
booksThe Perks of Being an S-Class Heroine, Vol. 2 by Grrr and Irinbi
The isekai continues. Spoilers for the first one ahead.
( Read more... )
The isekai continues. Spoilers for the first one ahead.
( Read more... )
Car and boathouse projects [projects]
Sep. 1st, 2025 02:06 pmrebeccmeisterThis is how far along I got with stripping paint and rust from the car:
If I want to get all of the rust, I'm going to have to get in there and take off that plastic thing, and get some additional tools, because I don't think I can fit the angle grinder in behind the outer metal lip. And after getting this far yesterday, I Just Couldn't Even Anymore. (combination of allergies, general face pain related to teeth/TMJ + wearing PPE, general tiredness and despair) So this might also be headed to an auto body shop, which I'm also not excited about trying to find and arrange.
Plus once the rust is all out, S says there are some sections I can fill in with Bondo because those parts are cosmetic, but now I'm kind of concerned about structural integrity of other sections.
-
I made better progress on some boathouse clean-up follow-up projects, however. Here's some of the crew that filled up another entire dumpster on Saturday:
Here's a sense of some of the stuff that went into the dumpster:
We had to clear things away from the fence line, because the City is going to replace the entire fence. We used Ancient Technology (well, mostly) to move this shed (rolling on pipes):
A lot of the junk that wound up in the dumpster had been located in the space beyond this trailer and shed. It does feel pretty good to have the space cleared out.
This morning I went back to the boathouse to drop off a couple of things, and then worked on Even More Shipping Container Reorganization.
I think this is the shipping container we will eventually send back to the rental company, once we have better oar storage figured out for this big stack of sweep oars:
There are around 40 oars in that stack (4-5 sets of 8).
I moved dock supplies to the front of one of the other shipping containers that we'll either purchase from the rental company, or swap out with one that we will purchase instead of renting.
Those are 3 more sets of sweep oars - the best sets that we use the most these days. Plus a stack of riggers, and all the rowing machines the club has at the boathouse at the moment. Keeping the rowing machines inside this shipping container is a vast improvement over trying to store them inside the boathouse, where the high humidity destroys the electronics.
I also used a rare earth magnet to clean up the area where we disassembled some of the old wooden racks.
We should not be leaving screws and nails lying around on the ground!
--
The boathouse work is exhausting, but there have been some good developments. Some time ago, while organizing, I encountered a cordless drill and batteries, but no charger. I obtained a charger, but then found the batteries were dead. After I got new batteries, the drill now works! And I even remembered to bring the dead drill batteries with me to the hardware store for disposal. There were some driver bits at the boathouse, but no drill bits, so I got a drill bit set for the boathouse, and now I shouldn't need to bring down my personal drill from home quite so often anymore.
Yesterday's small epoxy projects included reattaching a plastic antenna cover onto a walkie-talkie. Now that the epoxy has set, I brought it and another rehabbed walkie-talkie back to the boathouse and got them put away. I also brought down all of the supplies I've obtained so far for hard-wiring lights onto one of our safety launches. They might as well clutter up the boathouse instead of cluttering up my house, while I get the rest of the parts together to finish up that project. I'm getting there. Slowly.
Getting the walkie-talkies and safety launch light stuff out of my home office really helped with reorganizing my home office space for clothes mending projects. Now, will I actually DO the clothes mending? That remains to be seen. I probably need to figure out how to deal with the car first.
If I want to get all of the rust, I'm going to have to get in there and take off that plastic thing, and get some additional tools, because I don't think I can fit the angle grinder in behind the outer metal lip. And after getting this far yesterday, I Just Couldn't Even Anymore. (combination of allergies, general face pain related to teeth/TMJ + wearing PPE, general tiredness and despair) So this might also be headed to an auto body shop, which I'm also not excited about trying to find and arrange.
Plus once the rust is all out, S says there are some sections I can fill in with Bondo because those parts are cosmetic, but now I'm kind of concerned about structural integrity of other sections.
-
I made better progress on some boathouse clean-up follow-up projects, however. Here's some of the crew that filled up another entire dumpster on Saturday:
Here's a sense of some of the stuff that went into the dumpster:
We had to clear things away from the fence line, because the City is going to replace the entire fence. We used Ancient Technology (well, mostly) to move this shed (rolling on pipes):
A lot of the junk that wound up in the dumpster had been located in the space beyond this trailer and shed. It does feel pretty good to have the space cleared out.
This morning I went back to the boathouse to drop off a couple of things, and then worked on Even More Shipping Container Reorganization.
I think this is the shipping container we will eventually send back to the rental company, once we have better oar storage figured out for this big stack of sweep oars:
There are around 40 oars in that stack (4-5 sets of 8).
I moved dock supplies to the front of one of the other shipping containers that we'll either purchase from the rental company, or swap out with one that we will purchase instead of renting.
Those are 3 more sets of sweep oars - the best sets that we use the most these days. Plus a stack of riggers, and all the rowing machines the club has at the boathouse at the moment. Keeping the rowing machines inside this shipping container is a vast improvement over trying to store them inside the boathouse, where the high humidity destroys the electronics.
I also used a rare earth magnet to clean up the area where we disassembled some of the old wooden racks.
We should not be leaving screws and nails lying around on the ground!
--
The boathouse work is exhausting, but there have been some good developments. Some time ago, while organizing, I encountered a cordless drill and batteries, but no charger. I obtained a charger, but then found the batteries were dead. After I got new batteries, the drill now works! And I even remembered to bring the dead drill batteries with me to the hardware store for disposal. There were some driver bits at the boathouse, but no drill bits, so I got a drill bit set for the boathouse, and now I shouldn't need to bring down my personal drill from home quite so often anymore.
Yesterday's small epoxy projects included reattaching a plastic antenna cover onto a walkie-talkie. Now that the epoxy has set, I brought it and another rehabbed walkie-talkie back to the boathouse and got them put away. I also brought down all of the supplies I've obtained so far for hard-wiring lights onto one of our safety launches. They might as well clutter up the boathouse instead of cluttering up my house, while I get the rest of the parts together to finish up that project. I'm getting there. Slowly.
Getting the walkie-talkies and safety launch light stuff out of my home office really helped with reorganizing my home office space for clothes mending projects. Now, will I actually DO the clothes mending? That remains to be seen. I probably need to figure out how to deal with the car first.