Saturday, July 30, 2011

Drilling Without Electricity

I love my cordless Dewalt hand drill.  It is so handy to be able to quickly screw in loose screws and drill holes.  But it...like so many other conveniences we currently enjoy...runs on electricity.  I...like many of you believe that a plethora of circumstances could interrupt the infrastructure of our nation where we could find ourselves without electricity for very extended periods of time.  Or even on a more personal level...we may not be able to afford electricity in a hyperinflation situation...or other such situation.

Unless you have invested in those solar panels and charging system...or have some other means to charge your electric drill...you may be dead in the water to drill anything in a timely manner.  Which may not seem like a big deal...until you actually need to do it!

If you were to take a walk through grandpas carpentry shop back in the day you likely would have seen some hand crank contraption used to drill.  It  might have been in a "U" shape...or a type that used a corkscrew...or maybe an "egg beater" style. If you are lucky you might pick one of those up at a garage sale.  Many of them were really well made and will work as well for you as it did for grandpa.

I picked up a kind of "modern" version of grandpas that is an "egg beater" style.  It is fairly inexpensive and seems pretty durable...with it's metal on metal gears...and does a good job of making holes.  It also has good reviews on Amazon.  It's made by Schroeder...whom I assume is a company formed by that kid who played piano on "Peanuts" after his music career didn't pan out.

It is also a great tool to teach carpentry to younger children.  While I would be quite wary of putting a big drill in a childs hand...this one I could practically leave a child unattended with and not have to worry.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Brain-tanning Workshop (Potentially)

A friend of mine named Adam is trying to organize a class...bringing Tamara Wilder out to the Sacramento area to do a brain-tanning workshop.  She is the co-author of "Buckskin The ancient art of brain-tanning"...which many consider to be THE book on the subject.


This skill allows for the possessor of the knowledge to be able to make an incredibly useful and durable material from a variety of animals skins.


It should be $250ish for the tanning workshop...and maybe $100ish for an animal processing workshop.


If you have interest in attending please contact Adam at...




adamkfowler@gmail.com