Cowboy Tub Canvas Cover

The outdoor cowboy tub is almost a year old now. Still awesome. When installing, Eric and I discussed making a cover for the tub. At last, I introduce the cowboy tub canvas cover.

Most of my projects begin with a sketch and an idea on how to craft the project. The sketch is just an entry point. I almost always seem to modify once I get going and can see a better solution in the making. To get the template, I put a piece of plywood over the tub & the canvas between the tank and the plywood. I traced the outline of the top, then measured the circumference to get the length of the skirt.

Note to self: the top piece could have used an extra half inch to make the cover slip on more easily. This one is quite tight and pulls on like a form fitting sock.

Return of the Bed Top Bivouac

My youngest son has been lobbying for a bed top bivouac off and on for months. Eric built one for our oldest son long ago. I attempted a rebuild a few months ago, but the sticks I used were not stable enough and the bivouac fell apart after a week or so.

My youngest woke with a singular focus: to rebuild the bivouac. Before the heat settled in, I cut some branches from a small Eucalyptus and removed the secondary branches and leaves.

We moved the posts inside and assembled a new, much sturdier, bed top bivouac.

Graciously received and thoroughly appreciated.

Previously:
Bed Top Bivouac

Moroccan Style Dutch Oven Garden Pot

A few years ago, Eric's brother gifted us a Lodge campfire Dutch oven. This summer, I've been experimenting with some at home campfire cooking, using our old yard-saled Weber grill and our fire pit. I started with a Moroccan style dish with fennel, onions, homegrown purple carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and garbanzo beans over rice.

I added an assortment of spices and let it cook over the coals for about 50 minutes. The smells emanating from this pot made me deliriously happy.

Right before serving, I added some minced garlic and some fresh spinach and basil from the garden to brighten up the flavor. The rice on the bottom burnt a bit to the bottom of the pan adding a welcome crispiness to the meal.

I'm not remembering the exact measurements of ingredients to this dish, but here are my approximations. When cutting the vegetables, I like to make them larger bite sized pieces as the high heat extended cooking tends to soften them perfectly.

Moroccan Style Dutch Oven Garden Pot
1 1/2 cups Jasmine rice
2 potatoes, cubed
1 bulb fennel, chopped
2 carrots
1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 Tablespoon diced fresh ginger
15 ounces garbanzo beans (drained & rinsed if from a can. About 1 1/2 cups cooked if fresh)
28 ounces diced tomatoes with juice (2-3 fresh tomatoes, chopped)
3 cups vegetable stock
olive oil for the pan

spices (about 1 teaspoon each):
turmeric
coriander
Garam Marsala
oregano
cumin
dried ginger
cardamom
1 cinnamon stick

sea salt
pepper

after cooking:
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups of spinach
1 cup fresh basil or cilantro
season to taste

Thickly grease the bottom and sides of the Dutch oven with olive oil. Add rice. In a separate bowl, combine potatoes, fennel, carrot, onion, fresh ginger, garbanzos, spices, sea salt & pepper. Mix to coat. Pour vegetable/spice mix onto rice in Dutch oven. Add tomatoes. Add vegetable stock. Cover Dutch oven and lower onto hot coals. Push the coals around the Dutch oven. Cook for about 50-55 minutes.

Pull from fire. Let cool for 10 minutes, then add fresh spinach, basil or cilantro and diced garlic. Serve and enjoy.

Note: the camp Dutch oven has legs for it to sit on top of the coals. If using a regular Dutch oven without legs, it is recommended to set it on top of rocks or bricks rather than directly on the coals.

Addendum: When serving, I highly recommend a small spoonful of harissa stirred into the vegetables. The heat of the harissa opens up the other flavors & has me always opting for seconds.

Stumped Love

School is back in session. The night time cool hits us late in the evening, which is appearing earlier and earlier. Fall is scratching at the door. Although I'm always sad to say good bye to summer, I've always loved fall.

After school, the boys and I set out for an impromptu local hike to balance the changes. We scamper up a canyon near school to catch frogs, traverse a river in flip flops, smell water on rocks, observe and experience.

A portion of the creek is cleared of trees. Nearby, the remnants of long trunks and limbs lay portioned into neat stacks. One stump speaks clearly to us, "I love you". I wonder about the hand that carved it; the person who inspired the carving. The longing looks at each other. The touch of the knife on the tree with the carver's mind wandering to the love interest who inspired the desecration of the bark. A bit of love lingers etched on the tree long after the sharp cut.

I wonder about the circumstances that felled the tree. I think about the person that took the time to cut the inscription so thoughtfully. All these possibilities bundle together, an emotional maelstrom lived in the past, and I feel the sentiment so thoroughly in my own way.

The Long and Winding Woad

Thanks to a natural dyeing with woad workshop offered at French General earlier this month, I have been bitten by the natural dye bug. Following are some photographs of the event. I wrote about the plant and process more extensively at Root Simple.

Woad pigment oxidizing emerging from the vat yellow, quickly turning green then blue.

Woad workshop comrade experimenting with gradations.

Woad dyed garments drying on the line.

French General is offering another Woad Workshop on September 24, 2011, 9AM-4PM. Class size is limited.

Outdoor Tub Set Up

Galvanized tin tubs are in wide use at Camp Ramshackle. The kids bathe in them. Mulch is moved with them. Trees tended. Seas sailed. They hold icy beverages when the kids and mulch are fished out. Eric and I had many late night ruminations about getting a tub in our size and even went as far as acquiring a decomposing redwood tub via freecycle when I succumbed to the great redwood tub delusion.

This Christmas, Eric presented me with an oblong stock tank and outdoor propane shower. After finishing tent repair in our weekend of tending to lingering projects, we worked on the outdoor tub. A permanent location has not been determined. Instead the tub launches it's tour of Camp Ramshackle debuting outside the kitchen just above the patio area.

This could be the permanent location or perhaps one of many. It can go pretty much anywhere, but it needs to be near enough a water source. I moved some pavers that came with the house and serve a path that is no longer used and played with repurposing them as a tub floor.

This was a great day for outdoor bathing at Camp Ramshackle. Even in this elementary set up, the adult sized galvanized tub delivers. Kid tested. Parent approved. A running joke with Eric and I after a long day, is "I'm just going to sit in the hot tub." Now, we actually can.

Shantyboat by Harlan Hubbard

I had not heard of Harlan or Anna Hubbard and their journey drifting down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers when our friend David loaned me Shantyboat. He's from Kentucky where the story of Shantyboat is more well known. My attention was hooked after just a few minutes of looking at Harlan Hubbard's hand drawn map at the beginning of the book that details six years aboard their homemade shantyboat.

The Hubbard's built their boat just east of Cincinnati on the Ohio River. Harlan finishes the making the boat in 1944. The river rises floating the shantyboat off the land. They moar their boat there at Brent, Ohio, before casting off down the river two years later, drifting with the current of the river during winter and harboring each spring and summer to grow food, can and restock their provisions for the following winter of drifting.

Their story captivated my imagination and shared the rewards of a simple life unfolding via an extraordinary slow journey of mindfulness. Theirs is a journey of drifting but it is not aimless or lacking intention. And while they are adrift, they nurture a rich social life building community with others who live with and near the river.

I gifted the book to Eric for his birthday and to my father for Christmas. Shantyboat is a wonderful read.

Annals of Home Improvement: Kitchen Reorganization

Eric and I reworked our kitchen space a bit with a few small improvements. Above is the kitchen before shot.

We thoroughly cleaned out the dryer and flipped the door so that it opens to the left. We use our laundry line outside the house, but we still have a dryer in the house. We've had it since we moved in.

Whenever I think about the To Have and Have Not debate surrounding a dryer, I am reminded of Kelly Coyne's funny recap of the ongoing debate in her house. She writes about it in her and Erik Knutzen's wonderful book The Urban Homestead.

We added some simple hooks. I originally suggested we use some of the beautiful hooks Eric made from our olive trees. But he suggested something simpler would be better suited for the space. I agree.

I had picked up an old green metal cabinet a few years ago from a garage sale (the date stamped inside reads July 4, 1910). We had it on the ground in our kitchen to house a few tools frequently used around the house, gardening gloves and a few other items. Eric built a stand with casters for it, which makes cleaning around it much easier. We can just pull it out to sweep and mop.

Eric counter sunk the bolts and threaded on the casters to a piece 2x4 then glued them to a cut piece of plywood.

The original cabinet is on the bottom. Eric remembered another cabinet from a work table I picked up at a garage sale over a decade ago and sagely suggested we put it in the kitchen on top of the other cabinet. This very small project has greatly improved how we use the space in our kitchen. Plus, I just love the way it looks.

Oil Lantern Fix

Step aside slothfulness, there is work to be done. We just returned from a trip to Portland OR. Details to follow. I love trips out of town. A new town offers a new perspective. As much as I love departures, I equally love the return. A few days away always makes me see my home in a new light. Projects seem less like an endless list & more like something that just needs a bit of dedicated attention.

The weekend before Portland, I picked up four oil lanterns at a garage sale for $1.50 to add to our collection if three. We use them for patio lights. All were in need of some TLC. Upon returning home, I took to cleaning, replacing wicks as necessary and refilling them with citronella oil.

Four are now back in action. One, a Paull lantern (from the 1920s, I discovered), is awaiting a new globe. The Czech-made Meva 864 & one Dietz Comet #50 need new burners. From my research, the Dietz #50 may be a lost cause. According to www.oillampman.com (where I bought the new globe for the Paull), Dietz does not make a replacement burner for the #50. I did, however, locate a replacement burner for the Meva 864 from the manufacturer in the Czech Republic. I sent an email of inquiry & hope for the best.

I have not given up on the Dietz. The burner is manufactured without the intention of letting it be opened (unlike the other lamps). But perhaps I might be able to figure something out. Until then, I have four in action with a fifth to join the working lantern posse soon.

Annals of Home Improvement: The Trailer

When the Streamline trailer was hauled to the Ramshackle Compound in 2008, Eric and I discussed the idea of hooking it up to a main sewage pipe to make the bathroom completely functional.

A Main House pending bathroom remodel in our one bathroom home made the trailer sewage hookup a priority. Before we set to cutting the driveway to attach the trailer to the main line, we wanted to change the orientation of the trailer so that the doors opened to the north and faced the house.

Eric and our friend Phoenix pumped up the tires, lowered the trailer and took her out for a short voyage down the street. I had envisioned a mad loop around the neighborhood to turn the trailer around.

Instead, Eric wisely rode down the street, backed it up about 30 feet and drove the beast back in with the hitch facing towards the garage. I don't see how people drive these trailers on vacations. They seem so huge and unwieldy.

And who needs to vacation when you can be right here?

Annals of Home Improvement: Under Bed Storage Part II

In August, I made a cover for a drawer I scavenged off the street. The project was an upgrade for under the bed linen storage. I finished the second and last drawer cover. I decided to hem only the front and back of the cover & leave the ragged side seams exposed.

Despite the unhemmed edges, the cover is sewn much more neatly than the first one. I'm sure the dustballs and eddies of dog hair will appreciate the detail.

Tending the Tent

My three year old's birthday request was for the family to sleep together in the tent. Wish attained. Eric made the sleeping arrangements. We spent a crisp but beautiful evening nestled together under thick comforters. Our bedding migrated to the house post campout. A comfy foam pad lingered a bit longer. I finished putting it all away today and took the opportunity to rearrange.

With the changing weather, I decided to move my desk to the tent. As the bright summer sun makes way for the subtle autumn sunshine, I find myself lingering outside longer. I figure it is a good way to be outside and still get some of my work done.

The desk in the tent is a great addition to my workspace in the often too hot Silver Streak.

My three year old snapped this picture of me working at my newly located desk.

Annals of Home Improvement: Under Bed Storage

I am a curbside scrounger. In Los Angeles, with such a transient population, lots of people coming in and many leaving to return from whence they came or on to another adventure, invariably, the detritus of things acquired but no longer needed for the journey forward find their way to the curb. I keep a watchful eye for items that might be put to use around Camp Ramshackle.


I have long wanted to improve the storage of our linens under our bed. I've been using a zip up bag acquired along the way, but I don't like it. I looked in shops for new options, but found nothing I liked. So I kept my eye to the curb, looking for that dresser missing drawers or drawers missing dressers. I wanted a solid sturdy wood. After months and months of searching, I still hadn't found it. When I saw these drawers, I realized they weren't ideal, but they would do.


After maturing them outside in the elements, I finally put the task on the top of my list. I added casters to the bottom. I draped a piece of canvas over the top to size the cover.


I typically am a very neat sewer, loving french seams and double hems. Not so with this project. After looking at this drawer draped with canvas for a week, I realized I didn't really care about neatness. It was going to be shoved under bed after all. I wanted it to look decent, but french seams be damned. I was going to knock this one out dirtily. I finished it last night and am pleased with the result.

My Son's Outdoor Living Room

Our family has a wall tent on a platform that serves as a much loved outdoor living room. My oldest son, all on his own, created his own living room in the Saint Catherine's Lace buckwheat. He made a plaque and hung it in the bush to spruce up the place.


He recruited me to wield the loppers for a bird of paradise to decorate his flat.


We receive many heartfelt props for the comfort of our tent outdoor living room, but I think my son's take on outdoor living really hits it out of the park. Note to self: plan a visit replete with delectable treats to this fine destination in Los Angeles.

Knob Upgrade

Our backwards beekeeping comrade Sue posted a good idea in the comments on yesterday's post: Why not use the rest of the branch to make knobs since what was on there already was so darn ugly?

While the original fix wasn't really about aesthetics but more about my toes and avoiding a trip to the store, and buying stuff and all that, Sue makes a good point.

Riding the wave of enthusiasm from the previous success, when I got home last night I sprang into action. The very same branch was cut into knobs, screws were scavenged, backs of drawers countersunk and a new aesthetic emerged.

Voila! Okay, it's still ugly as hell but it's kinda cool the knobs are little branches isn't it?

Thanks Sue, we like it a lot more this way.