April 2015

We had neighbors over for Easter Dinner.  One of the neighbors asked when I was going to be done... and I replied, "I hope never.  I need something to do. I would go nuts with nothing to do."

-------------------------------

We hired Doug Compenstein, a local tile setter, in late September, to install tile in the master bedroom suite, tub and shower area.  We purchased the tile earlier in the fall and I thought I was going to install the tile but Carol told me she didn't want me on my knees for 3 weeks.  In retrospect I am glad she got me to change my mind.

It took Doug about 3 weeks to complete the work and he did a beautiful job.

The shower features full handicap accessibility, there is no curb so a wheelchair could access it easily.  Notice next to the wall, a linear drain. 

The tub is partially sunken into the floor, the height of the top of the tub is chair height so you can sit down and swing your feet in easily.  The view at ground level is very nice.  The shower involves some additional tile work so will wait until the weather is nice enough to set up the tile cutter outside - important to keep the mess outdoors.

I cut a hole through the side of the greatroom/ tower wall.  Mark Strege and I built a platform, lifted the fireplace and set it on the platform - all 500 pounds of it!  The base of the platform will contain drawers for storage of electronic equipment, CDs and DVDs.  We completed the installation of the chimney and hooked up the electrical for the fan before we left for Fargo for Thanksgiving with Kristen and Gabe and we had our first fire in our new fireplace.

On one of our trips to Rapid City we looked around one of the tile and stone shops and found some pieces of Rainforest marble to surround the fireplace.  The pieces were cut offs from a kitchen remodel, hopefully they are still there.

Our road trips are most enjoyable.  On our way to Las Vegas we drove through Colorado and spent our first night in Rifle.  The picture above was taken between Rifle and Arches National Park... we like back roads.

We had a nice visit with our daughter Amy, son in law Daniel and granddaughter Aliyah in Las Vegas.  And while there remodeled a townhouse - it turned out quite nice.  We ate lots of good food.  I got to do Judo for two evening practices with my friend Marcus.  I also got to spend the day with Marcus working on his outdoor G-scale model railroad. 

For the return trip our granddaughter joined us.  We spent the first night on the road in Zion National Park.  Utah is a beautiful state.

Back home it was a few days before Christmas.  Our daughter Kristen and son in law Gabe and their dog Fivel joined us for Christmas.  Much fun was had by all.

The appetite of the new fireplace kept me busy splitting wood through January and February.  Most mornings between 6 and 7 am we would start a fire.  If the sun came out we would let the fire die out around 10 am as the sun warms the house well.  As the sun was setting we would build another fire and keep it going until about 10 pm and then let it burn out.  When the day was cloudy we stoked the fire all day.  The  experience has been most pleasant and both of us are now advanced fire starters.

In February I started working on the back side of the fireplace, over the pond.  I trimmed out the shelf that the fireplace sits on so it has a timber frame look - all the materials used were scraps for the construction of the house.  I installed a cedar rail around the pond where the concrete pond meets the sheetrock, actually cement board, wall above.   I fabricated 3 brackets and installed a 1.625" diameter, .120 wall steel pipe below the window, this pipe will be used as a scaffolding support for access to the window for annual cleaning and maintenance.  The railing is made from 4x4 Douglas Fir.  There will be a heavy wire mesh with a 4" x 4" weave welded into a steel tubing frame that will be inserted under the railing, it will be removable so we can get access to the pond for maintenance.  The bamboo spout, middle right, is the fresh water make-up for the pond, it will be set at a slight trickle.  The back of the fireplace will be enclosed to the of the opening in the wall, with the chimney exposed.

I completed the sub structure of the entry walk way.  There will be four trap doors in the floor to access the pond filter, pump and UV water clarifier below the floor.  All the plumbing and electrical for the master bedroom are located in the vault.

I installed the tiger wood flooring over the plywood sub-base.  Tigerwood is a member of the Ipe family, and is generally classified as exotic hardwood.  The Tigerwood tree creates a herbicide and pesticide so is naturally resistant to insects, but this makes it slightly toxic to humans - I wore long sleeves, a hat, safety glasses and a dust mask when I worked with it.  Tigerwood machines like oak but is much harder - I used up 10 sanding belts and 30 orbital sanding disks to do the job.  Hinges and door latches will be added later.

The next step is to hook up the plumbing for the pump, put one final coat of epoxy on the pond walls and fill it with water.  Then we can add the fish, they have been so long in the stock watering tank that they will likely freak out.

Then I will install the scaffolding and work from the scaffolding to install the circular window trim, make the box to enclose the back of the fireplace and do one more coat of paint on the walls above the pond.



Things are going well for us, we hope things are going well for you too.

Van and Carol

sketch book - tower

This is a post that I started a couple of years ago and it never got to the stage of being published.  It describes how the concept of the tower came to be.

In one of the early plans the house consisted of a main floor with a walkout basement and a separate master bedroom suite.  The main floor was the great room and the lower level was the guest bedroom suite.  The lower level was accessed by a stairwell on the east side of the house.  This stairwell also served as the front entry way.  At the time I was thinking of a "karesansui" Japanese dry landscape garden for the lower level of the stairwell... the idea of using it for a koi pond hadn't occurred to me yet.

That plan was dashed during the following summer when we rented an excavator and discovered rock right below the surface of the ground.  We would have had to blast about 2 feet of rock to make our plan work... of course friends thought that was a GREAT idea... they were talking about setting up sofas, drinking beer, etc. and watching the blast.

The plans changed but we really liked the idea of the tower. 

The plans continued to evolve as we tried to listen to what the property was telling us about the design of our house.  The stairwell became a tower at some point, taking some cues from the fire towers and Harney Peak castle in the Black Hills.

Above is an early sketch of the tower.  The tower floor was dry and provided access to the crawlspace.  When we figured out that that door to the crawlspace would only be about three feet tall we abandoned that idea.  We had another interior space in the house that was going to be the koi pond and during one of the designs to reduce the area of the house, the koi pond found its way to the bottom of the entry tower.

There were a couple of other design refinements that we have gone thru and below is a "sketch up" 3D drawing that shows what we are going to build.

The box under the tower is below the ground level - this will be the fish pond.  Access to the tower "keep" will be via a stairway, part of which will swing up similar to a fire escape.  The stairs will be fitted into a timber frame structure that kind of reminds me of the style of timber framing used for mining.

Kangeiko 2015

Jeff Ficek and Nick Lambert, head instructors at Rough Rider Judo in Dickinson were responsible for setting up this year's Kangeiko.  

We had a wonderful day of training followed by an evening of fellowship.  Jeff had written a history of Kangeiko which he printed and placed on all the tables.

Kangeiko

Sensei Jigoro Kano's “Winter Training” Tradition

Sensei Borgen started a Judo Winter Training Festival at NDSU in the old Bentson Bunker Fieldhouse in 1995. The second year, he and Sensei Jana (Seaborn) Daueber decided on associating it with the Chinese calendar year and made up t-shirts by hand, silk-screening them in his basement, for that “Year of the Bull”. Thus, there are 19 t-shirts, but 20 Kangeiko's (so far)! As Judo grew from Sensei Borgen's Gentle Ways Judo dojo (at NDSU), the NDSU Judo Club, and the F-M YMCA Judo Club to include dojo's run by Sensei Ken Nysether in Bismarck, Sensei Nels Erickson in Minneapolis, Sensei Sam Rudd and Sensei Jeff Pryzbilla in St. Cloud, Kangeiko got larger. Eventually, Sensei Borgen proposed making Gentle Ways into an umbrella non-profit for all the dojo's. His personal dojo was changed to Aka Gawa Dojo, or “Red River Judo”. Now, Annual Meetings of the Board of Gentle Ways, with representatives from each dojo, meet at Kangeiko each year to help expand judo opportunities in the region.

By 2005, it was decided that each Gentle Ways Dojo would host Kangeiko – always in Fargo – setting the schedule and type of instruction on a rotating basis. Bismarck Gentle Ways had the honor of being the first dojo to host (which coincided with the 25^th anniversary of Vern's original dojo), complete with familiar faces from far-away and a banquet at the Radisson in Fargo. It was also the 10^th anniversary of Bismarck Dojo opening its doors!

2015 is now the 20^th anniversary of Gentle Ways' Kangeiko. This Year of the Ram is hosted by Roughrider Judo Club, and we returned Sensei Guy Hagen to his roots in Fargo, when he studied under Sensei Borgen starting in 1987. He has since gone on to an accomplished career in Aikido, as a student under Sensei John Messores and a Deshi of Saotome Sensei. He returned in 2004 for a clinic at Bismarck Gentle Ways in June and later that fall to Dickinson with Sensei Messores for a two-day seminar to celebrate the opening of Roughrider Judo.

One of the lasting traditions of Kangeiko, from Japanese days, was that after a day of training, the students would fold up the mats and eat a meal together in the dojo. This tradition continued at Gentle Ways from the first Kangeiko, at Smokey's Steakhouse in West Fargo, and then late in the evening at Sensei Borgen's house. Many stories were created over people eating the 52 ounce steak after a vigorous day of training and running barefoot in the snow (a by-gone tradition!)! Over time, Smokey's (tragically) closed, and Sensei Borgen's home became too small, but the tradition continued at a variety of venues. Nothing quite matched Smokey's , until Jeremy Magelky secured the Fargo Billiards and Gastropub at the 2013 Kangeiko that the Red River Dojo hosted. But regardless of where we gather, we will always be together in the spirit of Judo.

climbing journal 26 January 2015

A beautiful day in January in the Hills, sunshine, no clouds, wind about 10 mph.  Rapid City was 74 degrees this afternoon, broke the record by 10 degrees.

I met Mark at the Wrinkled Rock Climbing parking lot at 11:30 am and we hiked into the South Seas climbing area, maybe a quarter of a mile.  The South Seas area is about a mile or less west of Mt. Rushmore.  We climbed on a rock called Shark's Tail, three climbs, Shark's Breath, Shark Bait and Shark Attack.

Shark's Breath is a classic climb with 4 out of 4 stars with a difficulty of 5.7, which means that it is a moderate climb and 110' in length.  The climb goes up an arete to the top.  Mark led the climb and I followed.  There are a couple of thin spots which make up the crux, I had to stop several times but I figured it out without hanging on the rope or falling.  Mark had asked if I had climbed this before and I said no but later noted in my climbing guide book that I had climbed this in September.

20 feet to the left of Shark's Breath is Shark Bait, a climb rated at 5.8 with 3 out of 4 stars and 110' of length. This is a face climb.  Again Mark led the climb and I followed. It was far more challenging and I did have to hang on the rope on several occasions to get my strength back into my fingers but made it to the top without any AG (anti gravity - that is Mark didn't pull me up the rock). I was pretty much done for the day after this climb.

20 feet to the left of Shark Bait is a 5.11 called Shark Attack.  5.11 is a pretty difficult climb, not within my range and may never will be. It has 2 stars and is 100' in length.  Mark opted to use a top rope technique to complete this climb.  He stated that some of the crystals have been broken off and that the climb has become more difficult.  Mark struggled at points but was able to top out.

Thanks Mark.

Got home about 3:15 pm.

Washington DC

Over the past 30 years both Carol and I have been to Washington DC on numerous occasions for meetings.   Taking a few hours or an afternoon to see the sights... I recall one afternoon I literally ran around the Mall taking in all the monuments and another afternoon running through several of the Smithsonian buildings.

Carol and I have been planning this trip since before I retired, getting a chance to leisurely stroll through our nations capitol taking the time to stop and smell the roses.

Monday: Our first adventure was a 3 hour Segway tour of the Mall with Capital City Segway Tours.  There were 4 couples in our group, a younger couple from Singapore, another couple from England about our age and then another couple maybe 5 years older than us.  Carol thought that I would learn to ride easily because of my good judo balance and she was right, it was pretty easy for me.  It was pretty easy for everyone, and in a few minutes everyone was riding like a pro.  We took off down the sidewalk and into the street where we took up a full lane and off we went to see the White House.  Contractors were installing some additional security equipment when we got there.   Our guide was a political science graduate student and he was great.  Then we took off to visit the Capitol building and stopped there for some pictures.  Then we headed down the Mall with stops at the WWII Memorial and then the Lincoln Memorial where we got off for a 15 minute stroll.  Carol and I visited the Vietnam Memorial... it always brings tears to my eyes.  We mounted our Segways and headed back to Capital City Segway Tours.

Walking back to our vacation home rental by owner apartment we walked past the Albert Einstein memorial just off the Mall.  It is one of my favorite statues and he is one of my heroes.

Tuesday:  We took a tour of the White House.  I got to see the East Room where Teddy Roosevelt set up a Judo mat and practiced Judo.  I will have to say that as a mansion that the White House is quite elegant.  In the afternoon we had a guided tour of the Congress courtesy of South Dakota Representative Kristi Noem's office staff.  Our guide gave us an excellent tour of both houses of Congress, the old Supreme Court Chambers and other special sites.

We got to stand on the balcony overlooking the spot where the new president's are sworn in.

Here Carol poses with Jeanette Rankin, first women in the United States Congress, one of Carol's early heroes.  This is one of hundreds, if not thousands of statues in the Congress.

When we were shown the House Chambers, where the President gives the State of the Union speech, the hair on the back of my neck stood on end.  It is a heady experience to be standing in the same place that the work of our nation is conducted.

We strolled down the Mall and had a leisurely walk back to the apartment. I was just fascinated with all the architectural detail everywhere you looked.

Wednesday we toured the Smithsonian.

I have been fascinated with space travel and aeronautics in general since Commando Cody: Sky Marshall of the Universe (I guess that tells you how old I am!).  Carol was surprised that I could point to almost any rocket and know that it was a V2 or X1, and know when it was flown, who designed it, etc.  I wanted to be a space cadet when I was a child, some may say that I got there and stayed there all of my life!

I also like trains.

Carol enjoyed viewing a recreation of Julia Child's kitchen.

Thursday:  We toured the National Gallery of Art, the National Gallery Sculpture Garden, the Freer/Sackler Gallery.  The Freer/Sackler Gallery display a lot of Oriental art.  That evening we attended a presentation of the play, 'Driving Miss Daisy' at the old Ford Theater.  Sat in the balcony and saw where President Lincoln was shot.

Friday:  We toured the National Geographic Museum, just a few blocks from our apartment.  It was the only museum that we paid for and it is, in my estimation, one of the best museums in Washington DC.  The exhibit was about food, our food supply and our growing need for other food sources.

Saturday:  We took a down day.  We both had sore feet.  Walked around our neighborhood, took a late lunch and just hung out.  That evening we attended a Shakuhachi concert (Japanese bamboo flute) at the Freer/Sackler Art Gallery.  It was delightful.  Rode the subway home.

Sunday: We went to Arlington National Cemetery by the Metro subway.  We watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.   It is a very moving memorial to all those who fought for our great nation.  The guard walks very precisely, at a very somber pace, pausing at the end of his walk for about a minute before he begins walking the other direction.

Down the treed corridor, at the bottom of the hill is a fountain that lines up with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  The water flows from the top of the fountain while the guard is walking and stops when the guard stops and turns around.

Here I am posing with the flags of the United States, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard.  I was in the Army during the Vietnam Police Action.

We walked over the bridge from Arlington to the Mall and visited the Korean War Memorial.  We were in Washington in October, a perfect time to see the trees change color.  It was beautiful.

Carol is listening to one of many radio addresses by FDR.

And I am standing in line trying to get a job, destitute and poor.

The George Mason Memorial is one of Washington DC's least know memorials.  Mason was the author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights and inspired Jefferson during the writing of the Declaration of Independence.  Mason argued to include individual rights as part of the Bill of Rights.

Our last memorial was the Jefferson Memorial.  We particularly liked the following quote by him:

"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."

Ware Tada Tari o shiru

This is a picture of the water basin in my garden in Fargo, in Japanese it is called a tuskubai. This one is a copy of a famous tsukubai that sits near the monks quarters behind the famous Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto, Japan.

Water flows continuously into the small basin.  At Buddhist temples in Japan tsukubai are used by visitors to purify themselves by ritual washing of the mouth and hands.  The low placement of the basin requires visitors to bend a little to reach the water suggesting supplication and reverence.  The shape of the stone, which looks like an old-fashioned Chinese coin, the circle represents heaven (yang) and the square hole represents earth (yin).

The characters, kanji, written on the surface of the stone are read in combination with the square hole in the center.

 


This is a Zen saying that translates as 'Refrain from attempts to fulfill many hopes and be satisfied with nothing."

Surprise!

This past Saturday the Judo clubs from Dickinson and Bismarck surprised me good!

It is Saturday morning, about 10:15 am… I was getting ready to meet Ken, Mark and perhaps Nick at 11:30 am at Wrinkled Rock (a mile west of Mount Rushmore) for an afternoon of climbing.  It is about a 45 minute drive from here so I was planning to head out about 10:40 or so.  Ken called to say that they were just completing some work and would be a bit late, Carol suggested that we watch some of the NDSU – Iowa State football game until I had to leave for Wrinkled Rock. 

I had set the DVR to record the game so Carol and I could watch it later that evening.  So I went to the beginning of the recording and when the first commercial came on, I did as I always do – fast forward thru the commercial - which also cuts the sound, except this time, there was sound in the background.  “What is that?” I said aloud.  “Radio?”… where was that sound coming from?  “Maybe its the computer?”  But it didn't sound like it was coming from down the hallway.  It sounded like it was coming from outside in the back yard and what ever could that be?????

 

Standing up, much to my surprise, there were people in my yard, setting up a judo mat!!!   Ken, Dakota, Ruth, Nick, Mary, Steve, Jeff, SEAN & CANDICE??? (Whom I haven't seen for years!)  And kids.  WHAT IS GOING ON????

By this time I had made it to the deck, thankfully the deck had a railing as I really needed something to lean on!!!


Nick had made ninja arrangements with Carol to surprise me with an impromptu judo workout in our back yard.  They brought all the food and beverages and mats and people!  Carol had turned off the driveway alarm so I wouldn’t have a clue and suggested watching the football game.

It didn’t take much time to set up mats and get people into judo gi and onto the mat.  We had a nice 2 hour workout in the morning before a nice lunch put on by Mary, Candice, Ruth, and Carol, wives of those working out on the mat.   We took a bit of a rest after lunch to let things settle.  Carol invited the neighbors to see what judo was all about; they arrived as we started the afternoon session. 

And I got to throw everyone!

I  have been working on an esoteric component of the martial arts called haragei, a term that roughly translates as “the way of the stomach”.  In the West we talk about the heart being the seat of our emotions.  In Japan the hara, or stomach is where emotions come from… in addition, and very importantly it is also the center of gravity of the body.  Japanese martial artists will talk about taking control of the hara, or center of mass.  Once you have learned to control your hara you can take control of another’s hara. 

And ultimately this is what you learn thru the study of martial arts: haragei, the control of the center of gravity AND the emotions, it carries a moral obligation… interestingly enough morality is learned in the day to day exchanges between the students as they work with each other… at times it is like being thrown into an emotional blast furnace.  Students learn to care for each other and how to deal with fear and anger in a positive way.

At about 4:00 pm we decided we had had enough sun and too many breakfalls - it was time to ameliorate the bumps and bruises with some liquid refreshment, food and laughter!

The party lasted late into the evening and it had been dark for some hours when everyone decided it was time to hit the road.

What a day!  Carol and I finished up the day by watching the rest of the NDSU – Iowa State football game.  Bison won 34 to 14.  Go Bison!

Thank you everyone, I want you to know that you very deeply touched my heart today (and hara too!)