Airplane Attitude Indicator for the Car

When you’re off-road it’s a good idea not to flip your car over. Apparently it’s a commonly held rule-of-thumb that when the car is more than 30 degrees tilted around the ‘roll’ axis, a rollover is imminent (or has already …

Weather Radio for the Car

In the USA, there’s a service provided by NOAA called Weather Radio. It is a continuous, automated voice reading weather conditions and forecasts. It sounds like this: Weather Radio Sample (from Wikipedia). In the event of weather alerts …

1988 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ62

On my John Muir Trail trip we were treated to some off-roading in a cool mid 80’s Toyota Land Cruiser. It was all rickety and falling to pieces, and a notable experience of the hike.

Lightweight Down Quilt

Since Eric and I are planning on hitting the John Muir Trail later in the season, I need to be prepared for colder weather. What better than a down quilt? Even though down is high-maintenance (i.e. must be kept dry), …

Ultralight hat

It gets quite cold on the trail, especially at nights. So it’s nice to have a warm hat to keep your noggin toasty while you catch some z’s. Jess made some really warm knit hats with fleece linings, …

Tarp Repair

During our hike at Wilson’s Prom, the tarp got a little bit damaged during a windy storm. I’d set it up with heavy sticks for lifter patch supports and when the wind blew, the weight of them ripped …

Sailing socks

Just in time for the drizzle, I made some new socks for Simon. I designed these myself which was so fun! I ran out of the blue yarn but instead of using a mismatched color like I would …

Ultralight Quilt #2 – Alpine Version

It’s been really tough to get away to go hiking over the past few months, and even sewing has taken a back seat to work recently. So finally I’d had enough and decided to bust out the threads …

Backpack

Jess’s current backpack (an old Lowe Alpine Vision 40) weighs in at about 3.5 pounds. She likes it, but seriously who wants to carry 3.5 pounds before you even load it up? I just finished sewing her up …

Mini Watercolor Palette with Extend-a-Brush

Feeling a bit manic today, I made myself a miniature watercolor palette for out on the trail! I even made my own “extend-a-brush” and bound a little book of watercolor paper. The palette box is made from a …

GoreTex rain jacket for Gabriel

I just finished this GoreTex waterproof breathable jacket for Gabriel. It’s from Green Pepper pattern #149. The GoreTex is really sturdy material and large enough that he should be able to wear it for a couple of years …

Warm pullover

This pullover is from the Thru-Hiker Kinsman Pullover kit, size large. I was very happy with how it came out because I used some new tools in the sewing room – a rotary cutter and some other junk. …