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Gary and Loyal at Christ Episcopal Church (365:107)
Another long day at church.
Amazingly there was no sign of a hangover after all the Jack Daniels and Coke I managed to consume last night, which was just as well, as it was a big day at church today, with the new bishop visiting, Palm Sunday, and confirmations.
Alek and Lanie helped with the reading at the nine a.m. service, and then all the family except for yours truly was stood down for a well-earned rest. I stayed for the eleven O’clock service to sponsor Loyal in his confirmation. Today’s picture was a quick Arm’s length self-portrait with Loyal after the service. I should have anticipated that he was going to wear uniform, so I was a rather shabbily dressed sponsor with no tie and wearing flip-flops. At least it was my ‘dress’ flip-flops.
I also cheated on this picture – which is a composite of two images, I hope you can’t see the join. Loyal’s pose in the this shot was great, but mine was marred by a huge reflection in one of the lenses of my glasses. I was going to try cloning it out, but I noticed I’d hardly moved between the two shots I’d taken, so I was able to composite my face back into this shot. Oh the wonders of Photoshop.
I spent a lazy afternoon, the highlight of which was testing my latest wood-burning stove for the first time. Initial results are promising, though I’m having a bit of trouble getting it to start evenly. An adjustment to the air jets (that is sticking in a screwdriver in the holes and bending them) helped the wood gas burn, and I got around thirty minutes of burn time from one load. The burner might benefit from larger air intake holes. More experimentation is required.
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Beauty and the (out of focus) beast (365:106)
I had a self-portrait planned for today.
It involved putting the camera on the tripod, gathering the family, and taking a picture with Dash and Leslie. The plan was fine, the execution impossible, I was just too busy taking the wedding pictures to fit it in. I’m lucky I got one at all, as I took two shots and this is the fairly heavily edited best of the pair.
Not to worry though, the day wasn’t about my project, and I got some superb pictures though this is probably the only sneak preview I’ll show. With over 500 pictures it’s going to take a while to do the processing. The F2.8 70mm-200mm lens was an absolute godsend and made all the difference on the shots of the ceremony.
Unbeknown to me the architect of the church sat in on the wedding – I even got a picture of him. I wish I’d known as I would have asked who designed the sanctuary lighting and hopefully prevented the future use of sodium lights in up-lighters in an area where ambient light photography is required.
Lanie, Katie and Alek all did a super job, and Ginger was great, pointing out shots I might otherwise have missed, holding and directing the flashgun, positioning the reflector and passing equipment to me. It was a long and tiring day, and I promptly fell asleep once we got home. Not for too long though, as a barbecue and several Jack Daniels and Coke with the parents of the groom, Tom and Rebbie beckoned.
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Batch-loaded, inverted down-draft gassifier wood stove (365:105)
I spent some more time in the workshop today.
First thing today we ran a load of errands, then I settled down to work on my Mark II wood stove for backpacking. I can’t wait to give it a try, though I’m busy for a few days so it’ll have to keep.
In the evening we went to the wedding rehearsal for Saturday’s wedding. I had to re-think my planned shots of the ceremony as Leslie (the bride), as is her right, has had the altar moved and a couple of huge candelabras brought in. She is also having all the groomsmen and bridesmaids arranged around her during the ceremony, which cut off all my pre-planned sight-lines. It didn’t take long to work out some new positions for the pictures, though the sodium lighting is still a problem, and will require that I convert most of the shots to black and white (I can’t use the flash during the ceremony). The (huge) 70mm-200mm F2.8 lens with stabilizer I’m picking up tomorrow is really going to make a difference over my F3.5-F5.6 kit lens which really can’t cope with these conditions. After the rehearsal, we were treated to dinner (thanks Tom & Rebbie!).
We have a busy weekend ahead for all of us. Saturday at the wedding Lanie is a flower girl, Alek is looking after the parking lot and Katie is a ‘greeter’; I’m taking pictures and Ginger is acting as photographer’s assistant. Once the wedding is over we have a barbecue at Tom and Rebbie’s to look forward to. Sunday is Palm Sunday, and the new bishop is making his first visit to Christ Episcopal Church. Lanie and Alek are taking part in the reading, and I’m supporting a friend who is being confirmed, which means I’ll be attending two services. I suspect Sunday afternoon and a nap will be very welcome when it comes around.
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Hair cut (365:104)
Hair cut (365:104). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. It’s Thursday and this isn’t a picture of me studying.
Just a quick picture of my cut hair on the floor, before I settled down studying for the day. At class this evening we took some time out to go down to the hospital to see our classmate John.
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Laying down in my kayak isn’t too difficult (365:103)
Laying down in my kayak isn’t too difficult (365:103). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. On the other hand, getting up again is quite a struggle.
With the long open cockpit at least I can lay down and enjoy the sunshine, something I couldn’t do in a closed cockpit design. Not that it makes for a particularly good (or flattering) picture, but it sums up our day on Fellows lake quite nicely. In fact, thinking about it, this picture probably represents an all time low in this year’s 365. However, it is the only picture I’ve got for today.
We loaded up the kayaks before the school run, dropped the big kids off at school, grabbed an egg McMuffin, and were out on the lake by eight-thirty. Our plan, duly exercised, was to take advantage of the lake being relatively full and embark upon a ‘furthest South’ expedition. We managed to get a fair way up a small creek that feeds into south running arm of Fellows, far enough to be able to see traffic on the road that runs to the south of the lake. We had to do the water-based equivalent of bushwhacking to get out. In the process, I found a snagged lure, which is small recompense for the two I’ve lost over the past couple of days.
While fishing I was surprised when my cell ‘phone started ringing, this was totally unexpected, (a) because I was convinced I’d left it at home and (b) because it was sealed inside the ammo box. Obviously my ammo box while metal, doesn’t make for a very good Faraday Cage.
The fishing wasn’t a success, it seems that like the fish in Stockton yesterday, the fish here have turned vegetarian too. Unlike Stockton though, at least there were fish to be seen, even if they didn’t like the looks of all the various lures I threw at them. I finally gave up on the fishing and we spent the rest of our time at the lake paddling around and just sitting drifting on the wind in the sunshine.
Being a Wednesday in the evening we took the kids to church for Youth Group, and I attended the last of the Lent classes while Ginger joined the Moms’ Group.
The bad news from the guys at church was that my EFM classmate John who was taken into hospital on Sunday has had his diagnosis of cancer confirmed. Not good. It made me count the blessings of my day and my life, in general, all the more.
Today’s extras
Ginger Exploring a creek at Fellows Lake 
The kayaking equivalent of bushwhacking on Fellows Lake -
Running repairs (365:102)
Running repairs (365:102). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Today Tom and I went fishing on Stockton Lake.
It was a return match picking up from yesterday on Table Rock Lake. The weather was great and the lake as flat as a millpond. It was surprising how far behind Table Rock Lake spring is at Stockton. The weather might have been glorious, the fishing though was a repeat of last Friday on Fellow’s lake. Not a sausage. The fish at Stockton must have turned vegetarian over the winter. Well, that’s my excuse. Tom did manage catch one fish – just to bring our two day total to a draw of five fish each. The going was so poor we gave up early and came home.
This afternoon Ginger and I cleared up all the bags of leaves with a couple of runs to the recycling center. We’re taking the Kayaks out tomorrow – Fellows Lake again, our last visit before our registration expires, so I did a bit of fishing tackle maintenance, which is where today’s picture comes in. I thought I’d taken enough pictures of lakes and such for a while, so will have to do.
On a more somber note, I checked my e-mail for the first time in a few days tonight and discovered that one of my EFM classmates, John, was taken into hospital on Sunday, with a possible diagnosis of cancer. I like John a lot, he’s a very thoughtful and kind person. Here’s hoping for the best for him and his family.
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Fishing (365:101)
Today I went fishing with Tom on Table Rock Lake.
Tom took me out on his boat fishing today, and just for a change, I out-fished him, five fish to four. We put in at Cape Fair (which I prefer to call Cape Fear) and had a very good, sunny and windy day on the lake. Today’s picture is what you get if you try and take a self-portrait while being driven at fifty-odd miles per hour across a windy lake. I took a video while we were going back and I’ve included it below.
Later in the day I managed to lose my ‘lucky Lure’ – any lure that catches a fish counts as lucky in my book, but one that manages five is extra lucky. In the evening I went down to Bass Pro with Lanie and bought a replacement. I have high hopes for tomorrow when Tom and I are going out fishing again.
Today’s alternate shot & extras
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A fairly typical Sunday (365:100)
A fairly typical Sunday (365:100). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Today we didn’t get finished at Church until just before twelve. So here it is, an end of the day, late night self-portrait. Tomorrow I’m off fishing with Tom; should be fun!
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Meh (365:099)
This morning I helped Tom take down his neighbour’s tree.
The tree was right by and hanging over the fence so a little bit of finesse was called for. Once we’d got it safely down, we cut it up and made a big pile of all the logs and limbs. After that we loaded, unloaded and stacked three pick-up loads of wood. It was hot and tiring work, but I really did enjoy the workout.
Back home I worked on a revised wood burning backpacking stove, which again wasn’t 100% successful, but I’m learning more with each iteration.
You’d have thought that today day would have been a good day, but unfortunately it actually ended up rather ‘meh’.
Today’s extras
Tree felling 
Tom up a tree
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Gary and Ginger on a run ashore (365:098)
Today we went kayaking on Fellows lake.
There’s an annual fee to use Fellows lake. Last year it was $25 per boat – regardless of the type so our little kayaks cost as much to register as a motor boat. This year the fee’s gone up to $35 per boat, so we’re in the process of deciding if we want to renew. Our registration runs out on the fifteenth so we decided to get some use from the last few days on the current registration.We explored a small winding inlet of the lake, one of just a couple of places we haven’t visited yet. I took this picture of us when we stopped to explore a picnic pavilion at the entrance to the inlet.
In the course of the day we saw a very pretty bird, a Prothonotary Warbler, a few turtles, a deer and a couple of fish, but none on the end of my line. I did try fishing for a little while, but like everyone else we saw I didn’t have any luck.
Today’s alternate shots & extras
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My once a week ‘Studying’ picture (365:097)
Thursday keeps on coming around every week.
I had time for one quick test of the infamous wood burner before settling down to my studies for this week’s class. The wood burner experiment hints at possible improvements, my studying produced more mixed results. I’m finding this part of the course quite a hard slog, as the content seems to have got a bit repetitive.
I had a better shot to use for today, but I managed to miss the focus point somehow and it’s not focused properly. Definitely my fault this time and not the cameras. Sometimes I think things were easier when autofocus wasn’t an option. Unfortunately my eyesight and the unhelpful focusing screen on the camera precludes that option.
Today’s alternate shots
This was my favorite shot; a car drew up next door and I glanced up to check it out. Shame I’m not in focus. 
Studying for tonight’s class -
Reconnoiter (365:096)
In ten days time, I’ve got to do a photo shoot.
This afternoon Ginger and I spent some time on location checking the light and looking for suitable picture opportunities. What happens will all depend on the weather on the day; I had already built a lighting rig with this shoot in mind, but I won’t need it as we’ve managed to find some locations that I can light fully with the dreaded flash gun. We carefully picked places for the availability of surfaces for bouncing the flash, which the test shots have shown to give some very nice even results. Which is just as well as the available lighting is truly awful. Even so, I’ll have to use black and white for a lot of the pictures as some areas are lit with sodium lights. Trying to get a decent color image from those with a mix of daylight from adjacent windows isn’t easy. Just before we left I took a quick self-portrait. Check out the sodium lighting in the background of the color alternate shot.
I spent some time today working on my MK-II and III wood burners, and we finally have a burner that will bring a liter of water (around a US quart) to the boil in fifteen minutes from lighting the fire. More tinkering and tests are needed, especially as I realized tonight that I’ve been setting it up incorrectly. Still, tin cans are in plentiful supply so I can make and test several burner inserts.
The evening was spent at the church Lent soup supper, followed by youth group for the kids, a class for me and general chit-chat for Ginger. Once home I processed my pictures for the past couple of days.
Today’s alternate shot
Check out the sodium lighting in the background of the shot. -
More fun in the workshop (365:095)
Today we are building a “batch-loaded, inverted downdraft gasifier” wood stove out of old tin cans.
But before I could do that we had a few chores to complete, not least to go out and find a suitable mesh for the bottom of the burner. I found something – a shower strainer for $1.68. Once the chores were out of the way I started trying to work out the best way to build my MK-I stove, which kept me occupied for a couple of hours. The reasons for trying this are (1) it’s fun, (2) carrying a stove and fuel adds around 2-3 lb to my pack. A stove like this should weigh around 4 oz, and it should also be smaller than the stove, and (3) did I mention it’s fun? Anything involving power tools and fire has to be. In the picture, I’m lining up the outer casing before drilling the air inlet holes.
With a favorable (ie 40°F) temperature predicted for the night, I set up the solo tent in the backyard so that I could do a ‘backyard test’ of my new sleeping bag. Before retiring to my tent we tried out the stove. It was not a complete success, it seemed that the ash was blocking the mesh in the bottom of the burner, causing the fire to die out through lack of air.
With plans to modify the burner in the morning, I went to bed and spent a very toasty night in my new GoLite 1+ Season quilt. I was almost too warm. Contrary to the earlier forecast the overnight temperature only dropped to just below 50°F. The lowest overnight temperature in the tent was 48.5°F – aren’t modern electronic gadgets wonderful! We have a max/min electronic thermometer called a ‘Dangler’, we found for $10.
My conclusion is that with a base layer the bag ought to be good for use from around 35°F. Which considering its 1 lb 4 oz weight and 8″ x 6″ stuffed size is pretty darn good.
Today’s alternate shots & extras
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Trying out my new sleeping bag (365:094)
Technically speaking its a quilt and not a sleeping bag, however, the the net result is the same. I found a nice summer weight bag at 40% off retail price, hopefully it should be good for temperatures from 40°F up. Though after the very disappointing results we had last year with the 20°F Big Agnes bags – which we found very cold at just 40°F, I’ll reserve my judgment until after I’ve had a chance to try it out properly. The good news is that it only weighs 1 lb 5 oz. and it compresses really small.
Apart from my sleeping bag, I invested in a new battery for the Nikon today. The original battery is only giving me 50-100 shots. I didn’t want to spend more money on the darned thing, but as I’ve not been able to select a replacement camera yet, I’m going to have to keep it going. The prime contender as a replacement is the FujiFilm FinePix X100. Unfortunately although the camera has been released in Europe, only very small numbers have found their way into the US thus far. With the current situation in Japan it looks like it will be quite a while before I can get my hands on one and see if it really is everything I think it is. While getting the battery I also looked at trying a F2.8 70-200mm lens for some low light pictures. Decisions, decisions.
Today’s alternate shot
New bag, existing sleeping pad and some added cat fur. What more does one need for a good night’s sleep? -
Family hike (365:093)
Family hike at Busiek state Forest and wildlife area Today, I tried to learn from yesterday’s failure to make the most of the photo opportunities. After church, we took all the kids hiking at Busiek, which meant having a bouncy twelve-year-old, a reluctant teenager, and an out and out surly teenager with us.
I ought to point out that the surly one, Alek, isn’t usually the stereotypical surly teenager, but today he made up for it, sighing and moaning whenever the opportunity arose. It probably didn’t help that my response to his statement, “You said I didn’t have to do this outside stuff with you again,” was, “We lied.” Though it was very effective at cutting off any argument.
Ginger picked the silver trail for our hike. This is a technically demanding three-mile route that even we find quite tough going at times; so, Alek, Katie and Lanie should be commended for getting around it despite the grumbling. Especially as the temperatures unexpectedly rocketed up into the low nineties.
Today’s extras
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Sprinky appears to be giving me the ‘evil eye’ (365:092)
You would have thought I would have got the hang of this self portrait taking thingy by now. Alas that isn’t the case. I spent the afternoon doing yard work, raking leaves, cutting down last year’s bamboo, I even helped Alek get the leaf blower working and took everyone to Andy’s for a concrete (ice cream). Did I immortalize any of these activities in the digital photographic medium? No.
Instead I have a last minute picture of me pretending to use the DVD remote control while the whirs, flashing lights and beeps of the camera annoy Sprinky. For the record, we watched What women want. A harmless little ditty.
Today’s alternate shot
Sprinky likes being stroked behind the ears -
Late night stand-by (365:091)
Today was Lanie’s birthday.
And we messed up, because we have at least six working, charged up and ready to go cameras in the family and not one of us took a picture. It also meant that come the end of the evening – which was spent watching a movie of Lanie’s choice (Coraline) – I still had to take a self portrait. So it’s another ‘at the end of the day up against the wall’ shot.
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March 2011
This month we helped out at the church pancake supper, the van broke down, I became a temporary Lutheran for Natalie’s baptism, had a beer with Tom and Rebbie, Breakfast with Jim and Carol, completed my annual accounts, we went hiking on four days and after sending the kids to Chicago, spent Spring break backpacking and camping. That brings our year to date totals to 8 days backpacking (36.5 miles), we’ve spent 9 nights under canvas and we’ve hiked 34 miles so far, a total of 70.5 miles.Colour pictures made a comeback this month, though the trend towards the end of the month was once more black and white. I’ve got my feet up in three pictures, the van appears in four, Sprinky the cat in one, and my wonderful wife Ginger appears with me in seven. There are far too many hiking / backpacking pictures with long write-ups. I’m sure I’ll get over it before the end of this project.
Next month let’s hope for some more hiking/camping and backpacking pictures and maybe some kayaking and fishing pictures too.
1. Day hike – with creeks, 2. At the end of the day, 3. I’ve found another wall, 4. Breakfast at Aunt Martha’s Pancake House, 5. Late night browsing, 6. Doing the dishes, 7. Lunch at Busiek, 8. Pancake supper at Christ Episcopal Church, Springfield Missouri, 9. Price Cutter parking lot, 10. Gary crossing Woods Fork at Busiek, 11. New tent, 12. Drinking a beer at Tom & Rebbie’s, 13. Self Portrait at Natalie Anne’s Christening, 14. Annual Accounts, 15. Something Spicy at Mama Jean’s, 16. Petting Sprinky, 17. Gary checking the tyre pressure, 18. Final preparations, 19. Resting my eyes, 20. Gary and Ginger Backpacking on the Berryman Trail, 21. Gary and Ginger on the Ozark / Berryman Trail, 22. Waking up in the woods. Berryman Trail, Missouri, 23. Feet up, taking a break on the trail, 24. Gary and Ginger at the end of our Berryman Trail backpacking trip, 25. Trail shelter, Bluffs Trail, Meramec State Park, 26. Snow? What snow?, 27. Changing the headlamp, 28. Lunch break in the old barn on the Sac River Trail, 29. Tired, 30. That’s it for today, 31. Parallel Guide
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Parallel Guide (365:090)
Parallel Guide (365:090). Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. It’s Thursday, so I’m studying.
As we were off backpacking last week I missed a class, so I had to read two week’s lesson notes today to bring myself up to date. It’s good to see the auto focus on the Nikon still doesn’t consistently focus when using the remote (that was sarcasm by the way).
Much better is the fact I managed to get a 40% off deal on a down backpacking quilt, so now I should be set for camping and backpacking in the warmer weather; I found my 0°F bag a little on the toasty side even when the outside temperature got below 32°F. I’m hoping it will be alright, but in principle it is a similar design to the Big Agnes bags we originally bought, and I found them very cold. I’ll have to think of some way of trying it out next week.
Note to self: when you are writing a ‘self portrait a day’ blog, it helps to remember to include the self portrait. D’oh!
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That’s it for today (365:089)
That’s it for today (365:089) Copyright © 2011 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. The problem with going away is
processing all the pictures and writing it up when I get back. Still, I’m all caught up now and it’s all up and posted. I have to admit the last hour or so was wasted looking dumbly at the screen; I didn’t take anything in.
