This and that and plans are set.

Where our belongings will reside while we are gone.

WE ARE SO BLESSED!!!!

Things are moving along.  Work continues on the dinghy, which by the way is really looking awesome (more on that to come).  Today we took over another truck load of containers and such to our storage area at the "Kerns Chalet".  For those of you that don't know the Kerns, Ed and Julie are our dearest friends and have graciously offered to store our belongings (at least what is left of them) in part of their barn. We call their place the "Chalet", because it is well.....indescribably wonderful.

We spent a lovely afternoon visiting with Ed & Julie then ended up enjoying a wonderful dinner at
City BBQ.  While we were there we were able to firm up some of our plans for our departure. After talking with my brother Gary and Ed (last weekend) we have decided to stay here in town until July the 5th.  This way we will be able to enjoy one last 4th celebration with family and friends and then Gary has offered to drop us off either at the marina in Sandusky or in Buffalo, since the morning of the 5th they will be leaving for their annual vacation in Canada.  Can I just once again say how BLESSED we are with such amazing family and friends.

The front of "Kerns Chalet"

So we will be moving out of our apartment the last weekend in June and then spend the following week house/cat sitting for Ed and Julie.  House sitting, huh, more like staying at a 4 star resort.  Their place is just fantastic.  Since we will be storing our truck at their place too we will hitch a ride with them to Gary's for the 4th/Bon voyage party the morning of the 4th.  Then hopefully spending the night at Gary's on the 4th so we can be ready to go with them the next morning.  Haven't talked to him about that one, hopefully I can give him a call about that before they read this post :)

Gonna miss those cheeks

On top of all of this Amanda and Kent were able to find daycare for Jacob, since Grandma won't be here.  I must admit I was more stressed out about this than I was anything.  But the kids really like this young woman and are confident that Jacob will be in good hands.  So I have until May 1st to love on that little guy 5 days a week. Insert happy and sad face.

So things are starting to come together.  Mike and I are both getting very excited about our departure. I must admit though I still have waves of "oh my I am going to miss the kids and grandsons", but as I keep reminding myself we are only a car or plane ride away.  So as of today that is where we stand.

WE ARE SO BLESSED!!!!!!

One more step...four less wheels

Well as of this morning we are a one car, well truck, family.  We dropped off my Honda lease at the dealer this morning.  What a strange feeling it is to only have one well driven truck available for both Mike and I to drive.  Think about it, from the moment you get your drivers license you want your own car.  I have had my own car since I was 19, made payments, took care of repairs, paid insurance, etc.  Now at 53 I no longer have my own car.  It's really a weird feeling to know you are dependent on either using your husbands truck or the generosity of others.  Luckily my daughter and her husband are allowing me to borrow their 2nd car during the week when I am watching our grandson Jacob.

Mike and I talked about it today and it is going to be a bit of a change for both of us to have only one vehicle but the way we look at it is we are one step closer to realizing our dream!  A little over 3 months before we cast off.

Come on Spring!!!

This morning Mike and I took a road trip up north to Sandusky to check on the Lady J, retrieve a few things and work on a project.  The weather was gorgeous today.  As my mother used to say "everything that rolls is out today".  We made it up to Sandusky shortly before lunch.  Luckily the snow had melted at least enough to get to the boat without having to climb over it.  We opened the hatch and were quickly reminded of all the things that are stowed on board when it's not in the water.

Had to climb over some things.

Our first project was to take down all the curtains in the salon.  Mike was able to get these down pretty quickly specially after we moved things out of the way.  So I gathered the curtains and all the "extra" pillows together and moved those out to the car.  I then took some measurements of the settee and the bench so that I could relay these to the folks at the Fabric Farm so they can begin making our new cushions.  Oh yeah by the way this was going to be our last "road trip" in the Honda.  The car goes back to the dealer on Friday.  We will then be down to the truck.  One step closer.

We were able to get electricity to the boat by accessing the outlet on the building next to us.  In doing so we were able to charge the batteries.  Since that would take a little while we decided to take a stroll down to the lake and then off to Berardi's for a bite of lunch.  Seeing the lake still frozen over is always a site to behold.  It's an eery view and to be honest all we could say at that point was, come on spring and melt this ice.

Come on Spring!!!

Hard to believe in about 6 weeks the Lady J will be in the water.

It's going to have to do some melting before the Lady J will fit in her dock.

After an enjoyable lunch we returned back to the boat.  Mike wanted to remove the propellors from the prop shafts.  This would make one less thing for the marina crew to do when they come to replace the cutlass bearings in the strut that holds the prop shaft.  (Yes Mike was dictating this to me.)  The job went fairly quickly as the previous owner of the Lady J had left on board the prop puller.  All the right tools makes the task much easier.  

Pulling out the cotter pin with a vice grip.

Sometimes you just gotta give it a little wack.

The prop puller left by the previous owner

Getting down here was easy, getting back up well....

All in all it was a very productive day. 

Hopefully this last little bit of snow will be gone when we return.

Dinghy building, Part 2

The building process went very quickly up to this point.  Now things slow down with more detail work.   I also have to take breaks as glue and epoxy sets up at various stages.  But that's OK, it keeps me from getting carried away into a marathon session.  Boat building is a large number of relatively small steps that come together to produce a desired result.  The trick is to coordinate several steps at a time that will not get in the way of each other, or waste time and materials.

Taping the seams after applying fillets of thickened epoxy.  2 inch tape, followed by 3 inch tape.

The next step is adding the gunnels, the protective rub rails around the sides of the boat.  In this shot, the right side has already been installed.  I'm  putting on the left side.  A coat of waterproof glue, then lots of clamps to hold things in place.  After that, stainless steel screws from inside out to further strengthen it.

I'm using 1 x 3 red oak for the rub rails (gunnels), so pre-drilling the screw holes is a must.

With the gunnels completed,  I began framing up the supports for the seats.  I have a cardboard template to make things easier.  Everything is glued up with thickened epoxy.  The small gaps will be filled when I put the 1/4 inch plywood panels on.  The seats will add integrity to the hull, and positive floatation for safety.

While the epoxy is setting, I started on making the corner pieces for the inwales (inside rub rails).  I made them from 3/4 inch red oak glued to 3/4 inch poplar.  Nothing on a boat is ever "square".  These pieces have a lot of compound curves and tricky angles to cut.  I had to sharpen my chisels and my hand tool skills to make these pieces.  It was a slow but enjoyable job with a lot of mental gymnastics to get the angles to come out properly.  I screwed a 2 x 2 to the back of the piece to act as a third hand when clamped to my work bench.

Mistakes are fewer and slower to happen when using hand tools.

Careful use of the hand saw, and cleaning up with the chisel produced the desired results.  It was a  relaxing job without the noise of power tools running.

With the seat framing completed, it's time to cut out the seat panels.  Moving the hull forward allowed me a work space for cutting.  Maneuvering an 8 foot panel in a 12 foot wide space is a challenge.  I used the cardboard template to lay out the panels to get the maximum usage of the sheet.  More to come in the next installment.  Stay tuned and Think Spring!

Launch Date and changes in progress

Launch date has been set for May 7th.  

This is so exciting specially since it is currently 10 degrees here in Ohio.

Mike is off to Home Depot this morning to purchase more wood for the dinghy.  Which by the way is coming along.  We'll update folks on the progress of the dinghy at a later date.  For now we will continue to work on things that we can.  Along with scheduling our launch date, Mike also schedule the marina to do some work on the boat before she goes in the water.  Mike is amazing at all the maintenance he takes care of but every now and then you just need to have someone else do the work.

Which brings me to the the cushions on the "sectional".  Last year I diligently worked on cushions for the wonderful sectional that Mike made.  Well after a season of using them I have come to find out they are far from comfortable.  Ugh!!! We decided since this will be my only place of "lounging" while on the boat, Mike has his own comfy chair, we need to figure out what is going to be comfortable.  The problem with the current cushions is they "bottom out".  Which can I say really tweaks me off since I spent so much on the special foam for them.  And then on top of that the fabric I bought to cover them stretched out and started to pill.  So Mike and I talked it over and decided that we should have a professional make us some upholstered cushions with some "cush" to them.  So I will be calling on our local Fabric Farms and see what they can do for me.  The whole process is tricky because these cushions lay on a board and not springs, so we need to come up with something that has springs in the cushions.

Curtains are way to busy to live with 24/7

Okay now comes the fun part.  Since we will be having new cushions made Mike said that I can make new curtains for the Salon. The ones we currently have I really don't like.  I know, I know, you're gonna do what?  We both decided that the fabric we purchased is way to busy to have that much of it in one place.  (See picture)  So I get to choose some new fabric to go with the new cushions being made.

We will be removing this middle section.

We have also decided to make some revisions to the sectional itself and take out part of it that is not useful and simply gets in the way.  The middle part that links the two benches seemed like a good idea when we first came up with it but found it really holds no value.  No one sits on it and it only gets in the way when Mike needs to get into the engine room.  So revisions will be made to all.  (Pictures on updates to follow.)  It was good to spend 2 months living on the boat to figure out what really works and what doesn't.  Hopefully these updates will make our surroundings more comfortable.

For now I will continue to take care of our 6 month old grandson while his Mom and Dad are at work and keep all informed of our progress.

Me and little man Jacob.  Love that face!