I probably appear to be a slacker at the pace I'm going, but there's an explanation. Three years ago we bought a wonderful, 50 year old house in the mountains of Southern California. We are fixing it up while splitting our time between the coast (where the Locost and my tools are) and its location, 6,000 feet up on one of the largest mountains in the lower 48. I'm sometimes up there for 3 weeks at a time, and zero work on the Locost takes place then, of course.
There are lots of projects to do there too. A case in point is the boot bench in the ante room at the from entry that I just finished. It hadn't been opened in probably 30 years as the doors were jammed shut from settlement with age. The perforated architectural metal of its sliding doors were full of dents and looked horrible. I'm guessing the all dents were made by small children banging their heels against them while mom put on their boots and shoes.
So, I had to carefully disassemble the bench so as not to damage anything (and it's glued-together sliding doors) and remove the metal pieces. Although the pattern is still made, I would be required to buy a very large sheet for over $200 to get a replacement, which I would then have to cut and fit, and still have a big surplus of material with no application for it. So, I took the metal home and carefully straightened it with my English wheel, working it very slowly to prevent flattening the texture of the pieces while removing the dents. I think it worked out pretty well.
The architect who designed our place was really good. He was very clever in what he did and most things in the house serve multiple purposes - and do them well. I think of him as a sort of Colin Chapman of the mountain house design set. Underneath the boot bench is a very clever return air register for the forced air heater. Since it hadn't been opened, or the register serviced, in 30 years or so, you can imagine what it was like. So, there then appeared a project within a project as the 50 year old parts are long out of production and I had to create a new filter system from modern pieces. It's just like restoring an old car. There's always something new to discover and fix.
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The payoff is the wonderful environment it gives us access to while there. I've been hiking it, but alone, which can be dangerous as parts of the year the environment is very unforgiving. It's a sort on magical, mountain wonderland plopped down right in the middle of a major desert. I like to push myself and it's hard to find people my age who will take the risks or challenge themselves physically as I do. However, I think I've found some kindred spirits in a family friend and the daughter of a neighbor at our mountain house, although they are much younger than me.
The hike the 3 of us just finished last Saturday started in the desert at Palm Springs, about 500 feet above sea level, and ended at our house on the other side of the mountain. We got a lift from the spectacular Aerial Tramway, but it still takes some serious climbing and a very, very long walk to get to the other side. We passed through a saddle in the mountain at 9,700 feet, called Wellman's Divide and descended using the Pacific Crest Trail, which runs from Mexico to British Columbia. The ladies did beautifully and were excellent hiking companions. It really renews the spirit to see the many beautiful and distinct ecological regions of the mountain. Some of them are show below, but the photos have to be very small to publish here and definitely don't do the mountain justice. It's much more beautiful than my simple photos show.
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We have Internet up there, but I've found if I spend much time looking at this Locost site, I start to feel guilty about not working on the car and spoil my time up there. I get on from time to time, but have to regulate myself. That's why my progress has become so slow. I'm going back and forth between two very different "worlds."
Cheers,