Gibban

The Redington Find Your Water series continues with this new film shortie. Visit the Redington website for gear and the Vimeo page for more video goodness.

It isn't long no more than perhaps one hundred strokes of the paddle I hear the whistle the wavering call of the bald eagle and I look usually able to spot the bird my eyes sharp and trained at watching wildlife keen to pick up the horizontal where it should be vertical wary of the oval where it should be random I see it not. I don't need to. I set out from the Harrison portage on a heavy overcast gray day. It is typical of winter except for the warmth of summer and the extra green that the deciduous plants add to the landscape. A light breeze, a very light breeze comes mostly from the north. My first pause is at the Big Lodge, which is now green in summer growth and appears more to be a hill than a house. I can still get into the beaver forest because of the high water, so I do. I find a heron feather floating. It is very soft, almost limp, kind of delicate. The big dead end in the east marsh is continuing to close itself. I collect the old redwing blackbird nest, which I had...

Even though the birchbark canoe is not fully cosmetically complete (still needs deckplates, gunwale caps, & winter bark decoration), I couldn't resist taking the newly gummed hull to the lake for its first water trial especially during a brief warm spell with minimal wind. Thought it was fitting that I'd use the very first paddle I made to go with it. My wife & son came down for the "launch" to take in the show and the lack of anyone else around this early in the season made it a very nice family affair. The whole boat feels very sturdy with the ribs in and to be honest is a bit heavier than I imagined (probably because of the thicker rib size I opted to go with to strengthen the weaker bark hull). Despite this the boat floated quite high on the surface of the lake given the the cedar's amazing bouyancy. The hull's flattened bottom gives it decent primary stability but she still heels over quite well for solo paddling and responds just like bark canoes...

Copper spacer in place ready for mounting A while ago I replaced my raw water pump for my Westerbeke engine and discovered that the replacement pump had a flat foot for mounting that would not fit in the machined groove of it's mounting bracket. ( machined groove can be seen in last photo). The original pump had been machined to allow for this, but the replacement had not. Temporary solution What to do? A quick solution was to place two large flat washers on which would allow the pump to sit flat and square, as well as, being able to slide in and out as I adjust the belt for tension. The washers were the ideal size, but a better solution was available with a little cooper stock. Pump mounted I could of had the pump sent out for machining so that the foot would fit the recessed groove, but instead I had a large flat copper bar made to the dimensions to fit the groove and two holes placed for the holding bolts. This can be seen in place on the photo to the left and placed over the bo...