GardenFork – Eclectic DIY

  • Toad In A Hole Recipe in a Outdoor Cast Iron Dutch Oven – GF Video

    A Toad In A Hole recipe cooked outdoors, how cool is that? Watch the video and read on for the recipe and thoughts.

    Here’s an Toad In A Hole recipe from the UK that we cook in our cast iron dutch oven outdoors. You can cook this in your kitchen, but its more fun to use this  using fireplace cooking, outdoor cooking, or campfire cooking. Perfect for those urban homesteaders who want to take their cast iron outside, build a fire, and cook comfort food. We were introduced to this dish by our friends Barbara and Chris ( who are English ) and visited us at our CT house. Chris made this for us one day. Toad in a Hole is supposed to be for dinner, but I think its great for breakfast, especially after a night out imbiding.

    I changed this up a bit from the standard by adding cheddar cheese, which seemed perfectly acceptable seeing that Cheddar Cheese is from England, and cheese tastes good with eggs already, so why not mix them into the recipe?

    I make this recipe in a dutch oven, and its super fun to bake the Toad In A Hole outdoors. In the cooking video, we used charcoal to heat the cast iron dutch oven, but you can make this in a fireplace or in a campfire as well.

    Want to bake Banana Bread the same way? Watch our video here.

    Buy a Dutch Oven here, and an chimney charcoal starter. This post may contain affiliate links which won’t change your price but I earn a commission from. Thx!

    Toad In A Hole Recipe in a Outdoor Cast Iron Dutch Oven – GF Video
    Recipe Type: Dinner
    Cuisine: English
    Author: Eric Rochow
    Prep time:
    Cook time:
    Total time:
    Serves: [url:1][img:1]
    Making Toad In A Hole in a Dutch Oven outdoors is really fun. Go make this and let me know how it came out.
    Ingredients
    • 4 sausages sliced in two and then halved. I used sweet italian sausage from our local butcher, but most any sausage you like will work.
    • 1 cup of flour – all purpose works fine, but use what you’ve got.
    • 1 tablespoon coarse salt
    • Herbs of your choice, rosemary, chives, oregano, tarragon, whatever you have and like, chopped coarsely
    • 1 cup milk
    • 3 eggs – i’m a big fan of local eggs, so try to get some, help out your local farmers.
    • 2 – 3 tablespoons of good mustard, brown, spicy, deli – whatever you like.
    • 1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
    Instructions
    1. Fire: This recipe takes about a chimney starter full of charcoal. we used about 10 charcoal briquettes on the bottom of the cast iron to start the cooking. if you are cooking this in a fireplace or campfire, be careful not to get the dutch oven too hot.
    2. Take the sausages that have been cut in half and then sliced open lengthways and put them in the dutch oven to brown.
    3. While the sausaged are browning, take the other charcoal or wood coals and pile some on the lid of the dutch oven to preheat it.
    4. Beat the 3 eggs together, then to it the flour and salt and milk and herbs.
    5. When the sausages are browned on both sides, pour the egg batter mixture into the dutch oven and cover.
    6. Place more coals on top of the dutch oven and bake for 30 minutes. If it smells like it is burning, open the cover and check. you may have to move the dutch oven to a cooler part of the fire, or remove some briquettes.
    7. The dish is done when the batter is yellow with brown patches, you will know when its done. It will smell great.
    Notes
    Use a chimney starter to start the charcoal briquettes. You can also use chunk charcoal, but the square ones are easier.

     

     

     

     

  • Venting Your Crawlspace & ifixing your iMac – GF Radio

    Today on GardenFork Radio, Rick decides iFixit.com should sponsor GardenFork.TV and GF Radio, after Eric tells of how he has used the iFixit.com site and the products they sell to repair his iPhone and replace the hard drive on his iMac . Getting that damp smell out of your crawl space or basement also takes up a lot of this week’s show with Rick. How to use fans to vent your basement, do dehumidifiers work? What’s a vapor barrier? Rick asks what is the right thing to do when trying to vent your crawl space and get rid of the humidity.

    How do they figure out where the break is in a sewer line? Rick and Eric are amazed by the technology used to find leaks in sewer and water lines. Rick had a new line installed into his yard, and they used what is called a Pig to ram the pipe through the yard.

    Rick tells how to make a hot bed in a cold frame using manure, and where the term ‘hot bed of political activity’ comes from.

    We then move on to Bees and Beekeeping, Rick tells of  how to requeen a beehive with a new queen, and his travails in actually trying to requeen a hive with a new queen he purchased from White Oak Apiary . Key to requeening  a hive is to have help doing it, eric thinks. then its Viewer Mail, YouTube comments and more.

    photo by manimorff

  • How to can, dry, freeze, pickle, ferment preserve vegetables – GF Radio 223

    Daniel Gasteiger, author of Yes, You Can! and Freeze and Dry it too; The modern step-by-step guide to Preserving Food, joins Eric on GF radio to talk about how to can vegetables, how to freeze food and vegetables, how to dry herbs and plants, and how to ferment cabbage and more neat stuff.

    We talk about canning in a pressure canner and using the water bath method. Daniel doesn’t think the high pressure canning is that much more involved than hot water bath method. The pressure canner has a shorter canning time, but it takes a while to get up to pressure and you have to let it cool down.

    We also go in to fermentation of vegetables. Daniel talks about how to ferment cabbage and other vegetables that you wouldn’t normally think were fermentable, like chickpeas.

    I have on the to-do list of GardenFork shows and experiments, fermentation. Not just fermentation of beer, but I want to do sauerkraut, and it sounds like its very straightforward, according to Daniel.

    Daniel’s blog is http://www.smallkitchengarden.net/ You can follow him on www.twitter.com/cityslipper  You can buy his book here

    Sandor Katz on Fermentation – GF Radio 316

  • Washing Machine Repair, Water Pump Replace GF Video

    Washing machine repair video to fix a broken water pump. My washer broke, and I made a video of how to replace the water pump on your wash machine. If the washer is not draining, the water pump is probably broken. Water pumps on washing machines are not hard to fix, watch here and i’ll show you how to fix your Kenmore, Maytag, Whirlpool Sears washing machine.

    Front Loading Washing Machine Broke? It happens more often than you think. With several models, a coin can get stuck in the drain pump, and the coin wrecks the impeller. The impeller is the round thing that looks like a airplane propeller, it pushes the water through the machine.

    Washing Machine Repair isn’t always hard

    This repair is usually easy to do. Make sure of the following:

    • The washing machine is turned off and unplugged from the wall
    • The water lines are turned off and disconnected.
    • There is no wet laundry in the machine.

    The washing machine pump, for most washers, is located in the lower part of the machine, and you access it from the bottom panel of the machine. You will tilt the machine on its back and work from the bottom of it. Take cell phone photos as you take the bottom access panel off, and put all the screws in a bowl or container. Keep a bucket handy, as there may be some water in the hoses and pump as you disconnect them.

    Washing Machine Repair
    Washing Machine Pump from a front loading washer.

    Use a pliers to remove the hose clamps, you may also need a screwdriver, pay attention to how the clamps are situated on the hoses, and where each hose goes! You don’t want to cross the hoses, or the washing machine repair you’ve just done wont work.

    There will be a power cord of some sort, this is usually a plug with a locking tang that plugs into the pump. Carefully bend back the tang with a screwdriver and pull off the plug. Pay attention to how the plug came out so you can put the plug back in the right way.

    Let me know how your repair went in the comments below, always good to hear from you:

     

     

     

     

  • Kimchi Soup (Kimchi Jigae) Recipe

    Kimchi Jigae, or kimchi soup, is a traditional winter stew from Korea. It’s like a very spicy hot and sour soup made with fermented cabbage — some call it the cure-all for all winter ailments. It’s simple to make and many of the ingredients are not considered as exotic anymore. You might be able to get everything at an Asian market, or like me substitute a few things. Sliced pork belly is a key ingredient to this soup, which I have left out. It gives this soup a silky texture and a deep smoky flavor. Instead I added butter before serving and used a dried chipotle pepper to give it that smoky flavor. The secret to this soup is low, slow cooking.

    You’ll need:
    1 cup or more kimchi, the thicker pieces sliced into thin strips
    1/2 cup kimchi juice (right from the kimchi)
    2 tsp gochujang (sweet Korean chili paste)
    3 tsp red miso
    1 small onion, sliced thinly
    1 cup mushroom, sliced
    1 cup carrots, sliced diagonally
    1/2 cup pureed pear
    1/4 cup sugar
    1/2 tbsp salt
    5 cloves of garlic, minced
    2 cups chicken or pork broth
    2″ stem of pulverized old ginger root, or 1 tsp of powdered ginger
    1 large dried smoked chipotle pepper
    1 tbsp soy sauce mixed with 1/2 cup water
    1 tsp rice vinegar
    1/2 cup cubed firm tofu or glass noodle
    1/2 cup light sesame oil
    1/2 cup sweet butter
    sliced green onion, garnish (optional)

    If you plan on making your own stock, do it the day before, otherwise buy a good low sodium stock. So let’s get cookin’. In a large stock pot heat sesame oil then add mushrooms, carrots, and onion. Add salt, cover and sweat everything until enough liquid covers the bottom of the pot. Now add the kimchi and juice, stock (chicken or pork), soy sauce, water and vinegar. Bring to a boil then add ginger, garlic, red miso, chili paste, sugar, pureed pear, and dried chipotle pepper. Lower heat, cover and let everything simmer for about half an hour. If you have sliced pork belly add this to the pot , but do use regular bacon.

    Let the soup simmer on low for another 20 minutes then add glass noodles or firm tofu, stir occasionally. Simmer for another 25 minutes, or when the kimchi is soft enough to fork through. Remove from heat and add 1/2 cup butter. Stir then let it rest for another 5 minutes, remove the ginger root and the chipotle pepper. Serve hot and garnish with sliced green onion. I like mine with lots of sweet corn on top.

  • How to have a Yard Sale GF Radio

    Learn here how to have a tag, yard, or garage sale, from Mike and Eric. Mike is having a yard sale, and tell us how to have a successful yard sale, and his techniques for bargaining with buyers. Then we talk about squash vine borer damage and how to treat them. You can watch our Squash Vine Borer Treatment Video here

    How to seal your garage or basement floor is the next topic, Tyler is sealing sealing his garage floor, and we talk about how to seal your floor with epoxy.

    We then talk about how to deal with squash vine borers and tomato hornworms. Eric gets confused about which is which, and we read viewer mail about alternatives to killing tomato hornworms.

    Mr I Love The Ants linked to some pictures of what kind of moth a squash vine borer becomes , and here are those links:

    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/mrilovetheants/Plants/WaspMimic3.jpg
    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/mrilovetheants/Plants/WaspMimic.jpg
    http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v735/mrilovetheants/Plants/WaspMimic2.jpg

    we end the show with more viewer mail and comments.

     

    photo by ladyheart

  • Hurricanes, Gardening, & Beekeeping GF Radio

    Today we talk about hurricanes, weather forecasting, and hurricane preparedness with Tyler, who is the CEO of Allison House, a severe weather data company you can learn more about Allison house at AllisonHouse.com ( a GF sponsor )
    hurricanesWe continue with how to predict hurricanes and how the national hurricane Center creates different models using different algorithms make spaghetti patterns about where a hurricane is going to hit land or as they call it in the business, make landfall.
    Do the TV networks over hype hurricanes rainstorms winter storms? Tyler talks about how TV networks and the media in general could do a better job informing us about hurricanes and severe weather.
    It’s gotten to the point where people think the TV networks and media are just crying wolf, so many times a storm is coming and the media and TV networks make a really big deal out of it and then the storm doesn’t happen. Then people tend to become more skeptical and then when the real thing actually occurs they get taken by surprise because we’ve been numbed to the weather hype.
    Next up is how to seal the concrete of your garage floor or basement floor. Tyler tells us how he is preparing the concrete floor of his garage for the epoxy paint sealer that he’s going to apply to the cement which is one of the last parts of his home renovation.
    we move on to vegetable gardening and how to keep cabbage months from attacking your cabbage and what to do about squash vine borers and our squash vine borer video. Then how to mulch your vegetable beds with leaf mulch and how you can make leaf mulch and how you can use believes that people put out at the end of their driveway in the suburbs for leaf mulch and why we like raised beds . You can watch our how-to video on how to make raised beds here and we also have a video about how to make leaf mulch by clicking here
    Next we talk about beekeeping and we are both harvesting honey this fall tyler talks about using a hot night for the first time and how long it takes to harvest honey. Tyler had a very large harvest of honey this year and Eric did not.
    We’ve made a bunch of how to raise bees, we call it beginning beekeeping videos on garden fork and you can watch all of them by clicking here if you want to watch the video on how to harvest honey click here
    Then Tyler tells us about his upcoming trip to Scotland Tyler recommends the website visit Scotland.com which is run by the Scottish tourism board. Eric would very much like to visit Scotland and looks forward to hearing from the Scottish tourism board. You do have a question or comment about garden fork radio you can call our listener voicemail line 860 740 6938.

    photo by wallyir

     

  • Zucchini and Corn Fritter Recipe

    This fried dish marks the last summer harvest — sweet corn and zucchini from Eric’s garden make for some tasty, savory fritters. Some find it difficult to make golden, crispy fritters that hold together. When something is deep-fried correctly it is not greasy and the inside is perfectly steamed. The usual suspects are soggy batter, over crowding the pan, and oil that isn’t hot enough for deep frying. The key ingredient, zucchini, must be coarsely grated and salted to remove some of the liquid, otherwise the batter is too wet. Use a high heat oil like Canola to get the right frying temperature, which is between 175 and 190 °C (345–375 °F). Frying in small batches ensure that the oil maintains its high temperature. Baking powder is optional, but it does lighten up the batter as it rises with heat. Are you ready to fry?

    Squash and Corn Fritters
    Yield: 4 fritters

    2 cups coarsely grated young squash (or zucchini)
    1/2 cup thinly sliced white onion
    1 cup cooked corn (frozen or fresh)
    1/4 cup Quinoa, (optional) or corn meal
    1/2 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs
    1 egg
    1 tsp each thyme, oregano, powder cumin, dried onion flakes
    1/2 tsp chili powder
    1/2 tsp powdered garlic
    1/2 tsp baking powder (optional)
    1/4 tsp black pepper
    2 tsp white flour
    1 tbsp sea salt
    9″ Cast  iron skillet
    Canola or any high-heat oil

    With a coarse grater, shred the green squash, add thin slices of onion (paper thin), Quinoa,  and 1/2 tbsp salt and mix well. Press the mix in a sieve with a spatula then set aside for about an hour to drain most of the liquid. It should yield about 1/8 cup of liquid, which you will discard. If your squash is a bit seedy, use a tablespoon to scoop out the seeds and tough fiber.

    In a hot pan, cook corn with a little water then add a little oil (or butter) and a pinch of a salt. When most of the water has evaporated and the corn is lightly browned, it’s ready. Set it aside to cool down to room temperature. The corn can be fresh or frozen. You can’t beat corn on the cob, but freezing actually improves corn giving it a sweeter flavor and a better texture. If you’re using frozen corn be sure it’s completely thawed and drained before cooking.

    In a large bowl, add cooked corn, grated squash and onion, dried herbs and spices. Mix until everything is evenly incorporated. Then add egg, baking powder, salt and all remaining dry ingredients to bind everything. Mix well, cover and set aside in the fridge for at least half an hour. The batter should be thick, gloppy, and lumpy and it should hold together without separating.

    In a hot 9″ cast iron skillet add oil to a depth of 1/4″. To check if the oil is hot enough, stick the end of a wooden chopstick into the pan. When bubbles form around the chopstick it’s fryin’ time. Scoop a heaping tablespoon of batter into the pan. Brown for about five minutes, gently press down with a spatula, then carefully flip it over. Don’t crowd the pan, fry only two or three at at time. When both sides are evenly browned, drain well on paper towels. If the oil starts to smoke, clear out the dukes and lower the temperature.

    Keep the finished fritters in a warm oven and serve hot — garnish with fresh cilantro, fried onion or mushroom. How about some mango chutney or Branston Pickle? If you want to make this an authentic South Asian dish, add ground dried shrimp or diced cooked lap song sausage to the batter and served with pan-toasted garlic.

  • Beehive Ventilation Beekeeping 101 GF TV

    A new video in our Beekeeping 101 aka Beginning Beekeeping video series. We had a real hot summer, like everyone else, and honeybees can overheat just like we can. So when I went out to the beehives in the heat of the summer, I made a video about how a beekeeper can ventilate or keep a beehive cool in the summer heat. If you see lots of bees climbing around you hive, it may be that the hive is too warm. Watch this beginning beekeeping video to learn more

  • Honeybees landing loaded with pollen photo

    We requeened this honeybee hive last month, and the bees are almost a pure yellow-gold color, its wild. This queen is a hybrid Italian honeybee queen that we bought from Warm Colors Apiary.

    Right now the Goldenrod is blooming, and there is still clover in the fields, plus around here we have late season woodland asters. The honeybees landing on this hive have a bright orange red pollen on their legs.

    Honeybees landing with pollen on their legs
    Honeybees landing with pollen on their legs
    honeybees landing
    you can see here the difference between the older bees from the previous queen and the younger bees from the new queen. The older bees have prominent black bands on their backs

     

    ©2011 eric rochow all righst reserved

  • The Tiny House Minimal Living Movement GF Radio

    tiny-house-small-house
    The Tiny House Movement on GF Radio

    The Small House, The Tiny House Movement, The Not So Big House are all part of the Minimal Living Movement. I’m doing my best to reduce the clutter in my house, have fewer possessions, and I do live in a fairly small house, and I aspire to a Minimalist Lifestyle. But its pretty big compared to the Small House Andrew Odom is building for himself and his spouse. Today we talk with Andrew about Tiny Houses in general and how he came to start building his Tiny House.

    Andrews blogs about living with less at his site, Tiny rEvolution on the Tiny House Blog

    photo by wallyir

  • Artisan Bread No Knead Bread Recipe update

    I was asked to bring bread to a pot luck, and luckily, i had just started a batch of the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day the night before. With this method, take 6 1/2 cups of flour, water, yeast, salt and put it in a large container. You let it rise for a few hours then put it in the fridge.

    loaf of artisan bread
    Artisan Bread Using the No Knead Bread baking method

    I’ve fine tuned my Artisan Bread Recipe link here making it a hybrid of the No Knead Bread Recipe and the Artisan Bread Recipe. I lifted out a hunk of the dough from the fridge, formed it into a ball on parchment paper, and baked it in dutch oven.

    I also make slashes across the top of the dough to make those cool lines . You can see how we make the slashes in our No Knead Bread Artisan Bread video here.

    The bread comes out great! I look like I know what I am doing, and its real easy to do.

    This loaf has a small amount of rye flour mixed into the dough, and it has a nice hint of rye in each slice.

    How have you refined your Artisan Bread in 5 or No Knead Bread recipes? let us know below:

  • Squash Vine Borer Treatment #2 : GF Video

    The Squash Vine Borer eating the squash, pumpkin, zucchini plants? Get rid of the squash borer with this method. If you have squash borer damage on your squash, pumpkins, zucchini plants, here’s how we treat our squash plants.

    The moth of the squash vine borer lays it eggs next to the young squash plants, and the larvae then enter the plant by chewing a hole. If you see what looks like orange sawdust and a hole in  your plant, you have borers. Not good, but if you are careful and use our borer removal method, you can still grow some great squash!

    The moth that lays the vine borer eggs is a weird looking one, it looks like a cross between a moth and a ninja warrior. It has red and gray markings, here are some photos of the moth.

    There are other squash vine borer treatments, methods, ways of prevention, we cover a few of them here:

    squash-vine-borer-play

    Squash Vine Borer Prevention and Treatment method #1
    squash-vine-borer-treatment-play

    Squash Vine Borer Treatment #3 using Bt

    Don’t Give Up!

    Despite these squash vines looking dead, you can still get some good squash out of them, so go ahead and try. It also helps to reduce the population of squash moths. From what I’ve read, Butternut Squash are less susceptible to the borer, and summer squash like zucchini are more susceptible. I remember as a kid seeing our zucchini die every year and the presence of that orange sawdust stuff.

    squashCheck out our Squash Recipes Here

    How do you control squash vine borers? Any successful treatment you’ve used? Please let us know below:

     

  • Sheetrock Plaster Walls Pros & Cons

    I’m betting if you are reading this post, you may be searching for information on how to sheetrock or drywall plaster walls. So, I thought I’d post some pictures to give you all a visual how-to on sheetrocking walls and talk about the pros and cons of this kind of wall repair. Here are some photos of a drywall – sheetrock job we recently did on plaster walls that were in really bad shape.

    I get hired to sheetrock plaster walls when the client doesn’t want to repair and skim coat the existing plaster walls. To skim coat plaster walls is labor intensive, and to install drywall is faster and cleaner.

    sheetrock plaster walls
    Plaster walls in bad shape, the client had removed the trim.

    As you can see, the plaster walls were in poor shape, and some of the moldings were missing. We were fortunate in that the room was just slightly higher than 8 feet, so we could blend the edge of the drywall into the crown moulding. One of the issues with applying drywall over a plaster wall is how the drywall butts up to the existing mouldings, it doesn’t always work out very well.

    sheetrock plaster walls-3
    We build out with scrap wood and drywall any holes in the walls

    The drawback to sheetrocking plaster walls is that when the job is done, the walls look very rectilinear, they are very square and straight. To me, this doesn’t look right in a 100+ year old brooklyn brownstone or row house. But we do what the client wants, they are writing the check.

    sheetrock plaster walls
    The sheetrock – drywall attached to the plaster wall

    Plaster walls have an organic feel to them, they have imperfections, they are not straight and square, they undulate. When you skim coat a wall, you preserve that organic feel. When we’re done skim coating, it looks like a plaster wall in an old house; when you sheetrock a wall, it looks like a new condo.

    plaster wall repair
    Lucky for us, the walls of this room were a bit more than 8'

    NOTE: the client had removed the wood trim and loose plaster, thinking they would do this job themselves. Its very likely they encountered lead paint when doing this. Check with your local codes on dealing with lead paint. Lead Paint is very unhealthy to breathe or eat.

    repair plaster walls
    Drywall affixed to the plaster wall, joint compound being applied to seams
    sheetrock over damaged plaster walls
    sheetrock over damaged plaster walls

    What do you all think? Do you have plaster walls in your home? have you ever repaired plaster walls? Let us know below.

  • The Best Banh Mi Vietnamese Sandwich in NY

    Recently we were working on a paint job in Sunset Park Brooklyn, and we realized that Brooklyn’s Chinatown was just a few avenues away. Tony, ( who works with me in addition to  writing recipes for GardenFork ) and I had previously visited Thanh Da II ( 5624 8th Avenue, Brooklyn NY ) in Brooklyn’s Chinatown after reading about this Banh Mi sandwich place in the NY Times.

    brooklyn banh mi sandwich
    Eric's Favorite Banh Mi Sandwich

    There are now 4 Banh Mih sandwich places in our neighborhood in Brooklyn, the Ban Mih sandwich craze has reached the point where it was focus of a story on the NPR show This American Life.

    According to Wikipedia:

    Bánh mì or bánh mỳ (English pronunciation: /ˈbʌnmiː/, Vietnamese: [ɓǎːɲ mî]), literally biscuit or cake (Bánh) and flour or wheat (mì), is a Vietnamese baguette made with both wheat and rice flour, but more popularly known as a type of sandwich traditionally made with this type of baguette.[1] There are many global and regional variations of the sandwich, but the most common version features thinly sliced pickled carrots and daikon (known as đồ chua), cucumbers, cilantro, chili peppers, pâté, mayonnaise and various meat fillings or tofu. Popular bánh mì fillings include roasted or grilled pork, steamed or roasted pork belly, Vietnamese sausage, chicken, head cheese and ham.

    The Banh Mi sandwich is a mash up of eastern and western cultures. The French brought their baguette sandwiches of vegetables to Vietnam, and the Vietnamese made it their own.

    Thanh Da Banh Mih shop

    We’ve tried a few of the place in our neighborhood, but the Banh Mi sandwiches at Than Da II win. They are really good. Especially the #4, a BBQ Pork Banh Mi sandwich that I order every time I go to Thanh Da.

    dried mushrooms in brooklyn's chinatown

    An added bonus to going to Thanh Da is getting to check out the asian grocery stores in Brooklyn’s Chinatown. I wish I had a tour guide when I walk the sidewalks and try to figure out what the merchants are selling. Some of the stores write out the items in English, but most don’t. Lots of mushrooms and dried items and tons of fresh fish.

    Tony checks out the produce
    what are these?

    So if you are coming to New York, and want to get off the tourist track, come to Brooklyn’s Chinatown, and then walk over to Sunset Park for real mexican food.

  • Adirondack Guide Boat handmade from wooden boat plans

    Last winter one of my friends showed me an Adirondack Guide Boat he was building in his basement. I just nodded, having seen many half finished ‘basement projects’ in friend’s basements, wooden boat plans being one of them.
    Well this spring he finished his boat and it is looks just amazing.

    adirondack guide boat
    homemade adirondack guide boat made from wooden boat plans

    According to Wikipedia, the Adirondack guide boat is just that , it’s a boat that was used in the Adirondacks by professional guides who had paying passengers, usually from New York City, who wanted to go hunting or fishing and they traveled up to the Adirondack region of upstate New York to do so.

    The Adirondack Guide Boat looks a bit like a canoe but they’re have oars  and what’s really cool is that if  you are rowing the boat, and then let the oars rest in the water the boat won’t change direction.

    underside and keel of homemade wooden boat

    My friend built a classic Adirondack guide boat, these days according to Wikipedia, today they are made of Kevlar and fiberglass, but he was a purist and used all wood.

    (more…)

  • Hurricane Irene & Plywood Boats : GardenFork Radio

    Mike and Eric talk about hurricane Irene, being a weather geek, the Allison House Weather Station that GardenFork uses, and Eric’s new plywood boat video

    hurricane irene talk

     

     

    WMR968 Weather Station is available from AmbientWeather.com

  • Plywood boat, How to build one : GF DIY Video

    Learn how to build a Plywood Boat. You can make a great boat out of one sheet of plywood. Watch our video here and see how we build a boat.

    There are links at the end of this post for more of our boat videos and DIY projects ↓. You can make this plywood boat out of one sheet of plywood. If you use one sheet, plus a piece of scrap plywood that is 12″ x 24″ you can build a longer boat. We used 3/8 plywood for this one, next time we will use thinner plywood and fiberglass. I’ve been reading up on making a plywood canoe.

    If you want to find out when we post new DIY videos, get our email newsletter here.

    We used outdoor latex paint to coat the boat, and paintable high quality caulk to seal the joints. We added strength to the boat by attaching the boat pieces with 1×2 wood lath. If you can find some square molding that would be even better. Waterproof wood glue holds it together with the screws. The glue and caulk need to dry overnight before painting. Attaching a keel to the boat – I used a 2×4 – is key to stability. It’s not the most elegant boat, and the keel helps when paddling, otherwise it is hard to control. Several people have asked about mounting a trolling motor on the back of this. I think you can, but I’d suggest building a more robust boat for a trolling motor. This is a simple plywood boat, not a bass boat. plywood-boat-plans plywood boat-5 plywood boat-4 plywood boat-3 plywood boat plywood boat-2 plywood boat plans 6 How To Build A Plywood Boat

    Watch what happens to our first Fiberglass Plywood Boat here. You can listen to Deek of RelaxShacks.com and Eric talk about how to build a plywood boat and tiny houses on this episode of GardenFork Radio I got the idea for this boat plan after watching a video by Deek Dericksen on the Make Magazine site. Here is a boat some students in England made after seeing ours.

    You can find more plywood boat plans here.