Diversions is the central hub for news about the membership, behind-the-scenes details of my personal projects, as well as a wide variety of links to people, places, and things that inspire me.
Living this far north means that for a quarter of our year we seem to do much less outdoors. The warmer weather brings, among other things, a flurry of activity including yard work, camping prep, attending events, etc. It is just what happens this time of year.
Combine the normal spring and summertime hoopla with trying to finish and release a brand-new, and rather complex, feature in Hubbub as well as servicing Stripe Transfer clients, oh and we remodeled our camper, oh and we’re designing and building an addition onto our house, oh and I’m busier than ever with assignments at our local congregation — I’ve been busy.
Busy is good. It can get overwhelming if not managed and it can become joyless if I’m not careful. Fortunately I’ve seen busy times enough to navigate them better than I used to. I’m always learning, of course, but I think I know a bit better now – at the age of 43.something – how to manage my time.
This busyness has meant that my personal site took a bit of a backseat. And that is something I’d really like to learn how to manage better. I’ve had my personal site for decades, I’ve been fairly consistent in publishing here, but when I’m really under the gun it is one of the first things to be sidelined. I often wonder if I would benefit from figuring out a way to write here even when I’m extremely busy?
I was hoping that Diversions would help with this. I thought, perhaps, I’d be able to make Diversions a weekly affair. Or, maybe, that I’d start doing weeknotes. It is something I wish I did. I’ve wanted to for a while. Could I do a mashup? Diversions could be my weeknotes – where I share some of my diversions while also sharing what others do as weeknotes? I could try. Maybe.
Eliza and I purchased a camper last summer and we’ve been remodeling it bit-by-bit. Painting, wallpapering, tiling, adding new fixtures, sink faucet, shelving, etc. The last bit, the floor, we will finish this week.
The camper is a 2003 Fleetwood 19T4 Pioneer. It weighs 3,800 lb. dry, measures 23.5′ long (including the trailer tongue), stands just about 10′ tall, it holds 50 gal. of fresh water and the hot water heater holds 6 gal. I know these numbers because when you have to pull a trailer behind you, you’re immediately aware of every inch and pound.
We were able to use the camper a few times last year at a nearby campground and in my brother-in-law’s orchard. These close-to-home trials were fun and a good way for us to get some reps in for using the camper. We have 4 scheduled camps for this year already set. (Expect some drone shots!) Some a bit further from home. By next season, I think we’ll be ready for a big adventure of some type.
We moved into our current home in late-July 2020. Each year we’ve added new plants, trees, and garden beds and our backyard garden has filled in more and more. We’ve worked hard at it the past few seasons and this season, with a lot of rain through the spring, the garden is really flourishing.
Here are just a few things we have growing, blooming, blossoming, and fruiting (in no particular order) lavender, rose of Sharon, honeysuckle, grape, garlic, leeks, rhubarb, tomatoes, raspberries, hops, strawberries, peppermint, Saskatoon, pears, merlot lettuce, beans, basil, cucumbers, roses, mint, peonies (pictured), Columbine… etc. etc. etc. I love how our backyard is shaping up and it is really coming along.
Gardening is a lot of work. But I find it incredibly therapeutic. It is an enormous stress reliever for me and I’m really glad we have the space to do it.
Can I just say that sketching a simple addition for a home in 3D should be far easier than it currently is? Perhaps the trillion dollar bots everyone is working on will be able to help with this soon, but drawing a few cubes in the vague shape of a home shouldn’t be hard.
We’re moving Eliza’s mother in with us and so we’re building a 24×20′ addition onto our house. We’ve just finished the planning stages and are now submitting paperwork for our permits. It should be done by the end of the year. (Everyone says this, right?)
I wanted to quickly mock up the addition in 3D so that we could use our fancy phone’s AR features to “walk through” the space. I figured it would be cool. It was far harder than I thought it would be. I almost wanted to open up a code editor and make something easier. But I’m far too busy for that.
Drawing up our plans was a learning experience for me. Eliza has done most of the drawing on grid paper – since things kept changing as we went through the process, she had to redraw the plans from scratch several times. But we learned about code for electrical and plumbing. I’m looking forward to seeing this project through.
Here are some links I enjoyed recently:
- AMP3 – A website that converts YouTube videos into MP3. It is incredibly fast.
- The Doves Type – I love the story behind this typeface. /via Kottke.
- Teef – A lovely bit of CSS fun by Ashur Cabrera.
- Jack Davison – Photographer.