Used To Be, Things Red and Things Read, Things Broken and Things Fixed

Used to be a man developed a body of knowledge developed from experience and trial and error. Used to be that this man could be revered for his wisdom, and skills and sought for his opinion. The proverbial Renaissance Man with skills in a numerous variety of endeavors could be the sought after person, respected for his opinion based on experiences gleaned from just being. Such is no longer the case. At a certain age, the knowledge of youth has become obsolete. Transformed into the modern age where skills are transient with a life of months. The use of basic hand tool are unnecessary in an age of disposable equipment. Yet there is a certain satisfaction still available with working with your hands. The creation of stuff with your skills. The achievement of a solid thing wrest from materials with your hands and purposed to fit your psyche and temperament. There is a certain feeling you have when you can say "I made this". I have learned not to say this to anyone because, mostly, they don't care. I say this to myself. This is the person I have to please. This is the person who matters. This is the person who no longer used to be, but still is.

Maybe I should make this a serious sophisticated boat building site instead of the comedy of (t)errors it is. I could be renown. I coulda' been a contender. No, wait, that was Marlon Brando. I could be respected for my prowess, skills and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. No, wait, that was Superman. Oh, fooey, I yam what I yam. No, wait, that was Popeye. Crap, oh never mind.

The week:

The red lawnmower. I took it apart twice, once the hard way, once the easy way. Check yewtuub first, dammit. I cleaned up the carburetor and dumped out the gas. Hey, gasoline isn't supposed to be chocolate brown. I flushed out the tank and It ran! I mowed the tall grasses, AKA: Chigger Heaven, around the place. Life is good but not for chiggers. My ankles thank me.

The red batteries. 683 pounds consisting of two 6 volt batteries. One of the Grin and Bear It kids reluctantly acting a a model to show scale.

SIX HUNDRED POUNDS???!!! I resurrected the wheels from a couple previous projects, including the pod move, and we wrestled the batteries off the pallet they were on, turned the pallet upside down, bolted the wheels to them, turned them right side up, wrestled the batteries back on the pallet and rolled them under the boat. We needed the empty case to fit them to the battery box I made previously, so we took one apart and removed the 3, 2 volt cells out and fitted the case into the battery box. Budge made a couple panels that sit in the center of the box to hold terminal blocks, circuit breakers, and on-off switch, mysterious electrical stuff.

We dragged the set of steps to the rear of the boat so I could work on the fore decks. I swear, each time we move those damn things, they get heavier............and more rickety.....me too.

I didn't think roadrunners could fly this high.

We had epoxied and glassed the port side motor box tops last week. We taped them off and painted , applied nonskid, and painted again......and again. Now I think they're done.......maybe.

After weeks of preparation, After cutting, sanding, beam making, hole enlarging, epoxying, painting, splinters, penetrating finishes and tedium, we screwed on the fore decks. Visual progress! It's like magic. Suddenly it's done. The plans (grrrrrrrrrrrrr) say to flare the deck slats. Because of the curve of the hull, the space is wider at the front. We were supposed to make the gap between the slats wider at the front. We decided to do it........everybody say it together now.............."The Hard Way!". We kept the space between the slats uniform and laid out the last two boards wedge shaped and beveled, a compound (confound) angle. Knowing that I would screw up the angle, I had Budge lay out the angle and we cut it on the band saw..................we screwed up the angle and had to cut one twice, confound it! 

So, the third bow roller cheek with it's final coat of epoxy and paint ready to be bolted to the mast case.

The final thing I did was to apply two coats of Penofin to the remaining aft deck slats and front deck wedge pieces. There is just a small amount of Penofin left for touch-ups. We used two gallons.

With the decks in place, there is now a shady space to work between the hulls. So now, my BFF's (Basic Faithful Followers), we keep going. Stuff to do.....stuff to do.............

With the dead computers, I spent more time reading. Esquemeling's "Buccaneers Of North America". Published in 1678. Pierre Le Grande with a crew of 28, unsuccessful, running out of provisions spotting a Spanish ship. The crew decided to go for it and, as a motivational tool, something straight out of Sun Tsu, had the ships carpenter drill holes in the bottom of their ship. They succeeded, captured the ship, recruited a crew from the Spanish sailors, put the rest of the crew ashore and sailed the Spanish ship to France and didn't come back. 

The Music♫: R.L. Burnside "Everything Is Broken"

A Dylan song and currently, my life. After waiting a couple weeks for a new keyboard, the old computer is still dead, the new one is quirky, the lawnmower is running, one sander is awaiting parts and I'm worn out.