Tuesday, September 10, 2013

 

Eradication by Mastication and the FLAK

3 qts Wild (invasive and delicious) Blackberries
Eradication by Mastication - that certainly is a mouthful isn't it?

What it means is to work at getting rid of invasive species of plants and animals by eating (chewing) them! I did it and I'm still alive and didn't get sick. See, if suddenly everyone wants to eat delicious dandelions from their neighbors' yards then this weed would disappear from the suburbs. Anyway, that was the idea behind a fun fundraising event I attended in Oregon which was organized by the Institute for Applied Ecology.

Yep. In a lovely outdoor setting, we were served a Greek Spanakopita made with phyllo dough and cheese, but with dandelion greens instead of the usual spinach, wild boar sausages, braised wild turkey, potato salad with frog's legs, crayfish appetizers, and a yummy Himalayan blackberry cobbler for dessert - all invasive in the Oregon environment. Hmmm...there were blackberries growing along my friend's driveway so a few days later I grabbed a couple of containers and started picking (and eating) and freezing the bounty to do my part. Of course there was a lot of mastication of berries topped by greek yogurt going on in the days that followed. Here's a link to a short video of the event (the party, not me picking or eating blackberries) that was on the Wall Street Journal website.

FLAK sweater
While I performed ecologically correct eating in Oregon, back in the jungles of Guatemala Jonesy supervised the
He also 
  • Cleaned all the icky green battery terminals down in the cramped bilge
  • Removed the anchor windlass motor - had it rebuilt - and reinstalled it
  • Rewired the anchor windlass
  • Installed new deck foot switches for the anchor windlass (step on the buttons for raising or lowering the heavy anchor. The new ones have covers on them so we don't scare ourselves or guests when we accidently step on the the dang things)
  • Repaired kitchen faucet, reset the sink in the counter, and installed a new splashguard behind the sink. 
  • Replaced several Shade Tree Awning fiberglass rod segments which broke during storms
  • Replaced reading light in the forward V-berth with an LED one for the pleasure of our guests
  • Hosted the VHF Radio Rio Dulce Cruisers' Net on Wednesday mornings
Zipper closure on FLAK
After many years of hibernation and sporatic knitting, my Follow the Leader Aran Knitalong (FLAK) cabled sweater is done! I wasn't real happy with the zipper until a fiber friend came over and gave me the great advice to sew an additional line of stitching closer to the placket edging. Voila! The placket hugged the zipper and the inside has a much more finished appearance. My goal was to make this a unisex style sweater so that it would be acceptable to either a boy or girl which is why I modifed my original plan for a cardigan into this zipper/placket combination.

For this project I used Knit Picks Wool of the Andes (100% peruvian wool) in the "rain" color (color discontinued). This sweater, along with all of the sock and mitten knitting that I've done and have collected from the other sailboat cruising knitters Jackie, Celine, and Jan has all been mailed to the Motherless Child Foundation. This November the founder of the organization will be personally transporting and delivering these and literally hundreds of other items to the orphanages in Kazakhstan. So if you happen to spot a misplaced cable twist or other error in the photos don't tell me! It's gone and there's nothing I can do about it now!

Comments:
Gee whiz, he just about built a new boat! Congrats on being able to achieve all that.
 
Mmmm - getting hungry reading this!!!
:-)
 
I LOVE THIS FLAK Sweater. It is wonderful. What a great job you did Terry of course. And it fits so well........ love all the patterns.
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?