NYC Adventure

With the term winding down, I wanted to get one last visit with my NYC family before I went out to the big CO. So I found a great way to get down there -- flying! I flew in a teeny Cessna - in the co-pilot seat with great views and deafening noise from Lebanon NH to a small airport outside the city, then took a van into Manhattan. After that great adventures, I went on to walk the park with my grandma, shop with my aunt, debate and learn business tips from my grandpa and eat at a great restaurant with class! Gotta love NYC!

Trailwork

At the end of first year trips last fall, I had a vision for the rest of the "skillz" course on Oak Hill. I wanted to make a run that would be short, so one could do many laps, and fun for beginner riders as well as experienced riders. The only catch was that the design I had in mind needed a mini excavator and a qualified operator. This project stood at a standstill for most of fall, until I had an idea - recruit an alum with enough experience to satisfy risk management. I did so, and in one day we took in tampers, shovels and an excavator and turned a stretch of Oak Hill woods into a sequence of burmed turns and jumps -- yeehaw!

CNC Sup

I built a SUP two years ago. It was hollow wood construction, like an airplane wing. It was an amazing project, but after paddling this SUP for a year, I knew that the design could be improved. I created the new design in CAD (computer aided design) and realized that I could do much more than just make the design better; I could also cut down on my waste. By changing the design into the right configuration and using the SHOPBOT, a really sophisticated mill, I cut the entire SUP out of one sheet of plywood! Not bad!!

Life

Is a circus - or so it seemed as I rode to circus practice the other day with all of the necessary ingredients - a pad, practice fire staves and a bit of humor! Did I miss anything?

Family and Community

The topic of "community" is important at Dartmouth. From the day I arrived on campus, meeting the people on my freshmen trip and then meeting my freshman floor community, I searched for an understanding of community. But, what in the world is community, and how do you find it? Was it in the multitude of group meetings I attend every week? Or my classmates? For me it wasn't any of these. I didn’t really sense "community" during my freshman year, not the chilling, shooting the shit, unfiltered conversation, comfortable "community" that I wanted.

I actually didn’t find it until I moved off campus. If you have read many of my post , then you  know that the "Pebble", my off campus house, is a pretty special place. It has a backyard, a kitchen and a chest freezer. I will come back to the chest freezer in a bit. Even more special than the place itself, are our neighbors and the people surrounding the pebble - the "Cooldesac" as we call it. These amazing people started a tradition of "family dinners" during my sophomore year. Each dinner was cooked by whoever felt like it, and the ‘family’ invited was everyone people could possibly think to invite. Needless to say, food was enjoyed in quantity, which is where the handy dandy freezer came in.

Every time you deal with dinner + college kids, it always seems to come down to petty splitting of pennies and dimes for chipping in. With the chest freezer and bulk food costs, the cook could just grab food out of the house freezer and not worry about whose label was on the bag of chicken. This resolved tensions, and created an atmosphere of "community"  that translated into hours of eating, sharing stories, joking and general merriment during each get together -- at least once a week. From that point, the events grew. We almost never have a group of people who all know each other, and when we do, it is just as well. It took the right place, food and environment to foster my special community. What makes yours?

Easy Commute

I made a pact with myself. With an engineering internship for the fall term, I looked forward to working, but I also had something to prove. I wanted to learn about working as an engineer, but more importantly, I wanted to prove to myself that I could continue to have an active lifestyle while doing so -- by biking to work every day. After looking at maps, I saw that I could mountain bike commute over Burnt Mountain from Hanover to Lebanon, NH.

That meant weaving  around rocks and roots moments after waking up, heading to work only to pant uphill by headlamp for three miles before dropping into windy singletrack for a wild ride down.

The commute became the highlight of my day. Not only was the ride a fun and challenging one, but by riding the same track every day, I watched the season change day by day.

The ride was not without some mishaps. On day one, I carried my bike through a swamp only to exit the trail network on the wrong side of the mountain, slogging to work an hour late. On day three, I took a sapling down on the way home with my handlebars, sending me flying. On day four, I broke a chain halfway to work and pushed my bike the rest of the way. By day five, after going over the handlebars so perfectly that my bike landed, perfectly balanced, wheels still spinning, on my back, I was getting used to recounting my commute to my co-workers. I don’t know if they fully believed me, but I felt bad for anyone that didn’t have the chance to adventure every day and see some stunning fall colors.

Then there was Heat!

The walls went up. The paint was on. The window was set. And so ended my weekend, but I couldn’t let it sit there without finishing the sauna. So I woke up at 6, ready to saw at 7. I figured people were waking up around that time. Or at least they would be now! From then on, I worked during the 2 hours before work and until 9 a night. To say I slept well would be the understatement of the century.

 

The insulation went in pretty easily if not "itchily" - I swear I will be old before all the fiberglass fibers come out of my jacket. Then I tacked the vapor barrier over the insulation. I can’t tell you how blinding it is to be in a room working with a headlamp staring down a mirrored surface.

With the sauna looking like a 1970’s attempt to make a room look larger, I started working on the floor and stove, putting in heat shields where the stove would sit and marking out where the pipe would poke through the ceiling. Sensing the end, I took a day off work, recruited some friends and hammered on the white pine siding for the inside of the sauna. The reason for white pine over cedar was mostly based on cost; pine was 4 times cheaper than cedar and just as mildew resistant. With each section, we were a little closer to firing her up. By 10:30 at night, I had the stove in, the paneling up and the last piece of the bench installed. I couldn’t even sneak in a sauna before I fell asleep.