Palladium Boots

It'd been ages since I thought about Palladium boots until I ran across them in Lombardi Sports on Polk St. in San Francisco. My grandfather used to buy me surplus Foreign Legion boots when I was in high school and college. They were a standard "go to" shoe for me for years.

Light weight and built much like a canvas sneaker but with a lug sole and far more support, they make for an incredibly versatle shoe. They're  the kind of boot that keeps you from beating up your feet while not being so heavy as to make you regret wearing them 15 or 20 miles into your day. 

After tromping around San Francisco for a couple weeks in my new ones I'm happy to say they've managed to improve on an already great product. 

Potting soil for carnivorous plants!

I've always liked carnivorous plants. Who doesn't think Venus Fly Traps are cool? So, I recently decided to give growing some another shot. I've killed a number of them in the past and thought it'd be a great opportunity to share what I learned after digging in and sorting out why. As it turns out there are two major factors in keeping carnivorous plants, water and soil. Sounds simple enough? Not really.

Carnivorous plants are even more sensitive than the orchids I used to keep. You've got to keep them wet and in a humid environment but you also need to be sure and only use distilled water or rainwater that is known to be clean and contaminant free. RO filtered water is alright but the filters are costly and you could kill your plants if they fail and you don't notice in time. Distilled water is cheap and widely available anyway so there's little excuse to not use it.

The essential soil mix is a 1/1 ratio of pre-wetted peat moss to clean sand that won't leach minerals or untreated perlite. on the surface it's just that simple but if you'd like to read more you ca check out the full step by step Instructable here.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Potting-soil-for-carnivorous-plants/

Opinel knives

I was finally in the right place at the right time and grabbed a new Opinel folder. I haven't had one since moving west and have been meaning to pick up a new one for ages. I was lucky enough to find a shop that carried the nicer ones ad got one with an olive wood handle.

Opinel has been around since the 1890's and is still a family run business in the Savoie region of France. It was one of the first knives I ever owned having gotten my first as a gift when I was 6 or 8 years old. Though my first Opinel was an even more simple "penny knife". I may have to track down one of those as well. That was such a good little knife...

They're just simple well made knives with such a classic design as to not really need much of an update even after more than 100 years. Similar to both Nontron and Laguiole the Opinel is the more likely knife you will find out in the world. One thing I like about them is that being priced reasonably they are knives you won't hesitate to use. This is a knife that successfully combines style and function with the bonus that they tend to look better with time and use.

Still Here!

Hey folks,

haven't posted in ages but I am still out here. Keeping very busy at Instructables and doing more projects than ever. I'm also getting out and about and exploring more and more of not only the San Francisco Bay area but quite a few other places as well. In the coming weeks I hope to get back at this and work the blog into me regular routine. I'd like to post both my work projects as well as random things that I find interesting and a couple of projects here and there that I may not be posting on Instructables, though it seems there's room for just about everything on there.