Priorities

In a few weeks my lovely wife and I will be making our way back home. Our thoughts are turning towards the things we'll have to do once we get there. Of course, the first thing we'll have to do is unwinterize the house. Heat, water and power have to be restored. With any luck that won't take too long. Once our basic shelter needs are attended to, then what?

My lovely wife insists that the first major project we have to complete is a new boat dock. Is she a water person or what?

Our beach area is very shallow. That's great when swimming. There are no drop offs where little kids can suddenly find themselves over their heads. It's not too bad for canoes and kayaks -boats that are normally beached anyway.

Powerboats and even more so sailboats, have a hard time. The normal procedure has been to anchor the bow and tie the stern to the shore. That works well enough, but the only way to get into the boat is to get your feet wet. That's not bad on a hot summer day, but it's not so great during the spring and fall.

There are some storm damaged cedar trees near the beach that should make excellent support beams for the dock. Cedar is naturally rot resistant, a good thing around water. The trail to the beach is about 350 feet long. About half the distance is steep hill, the other half consists of bog bridges though cedar swamp. That's not the best path for hauling materials to the beach.

Fortunately my little lake has a nice boat ramp. It's a lot easier to move heavy things by boat than by trail. Once the boat dock is in place it will be even easier.

Sixbears

Tarpon Springs

My lovely wife and I went on a quest for navigational charts to fill in some of the gaps in our collection. We found exactly what we needed. Sometimes there’s nothing for it but to go to a big West Marine store.

While we were in the area, we went over to Tarpon Springs for lunch. It’s an interesting place. It was settled by Greek sponge fishermen. The Greek presence is still very strong. Spoken Greek is heard on the street. We had a great lunch as Greek food is one of my favorites.

There were plenty of little touristy shops to keep my lovely wife happy. As for me, I checked out the working boats. There’s something special about a working harbor, even a small one. Most of the boats weren’t pretty, but they sure were salty.

We planned on sailing past the Anclote River (the river Tarpon Springs sits on), but now we are really interested in seeing it from the water.

-Sixbears

Building Stuff

Eventually, Spring will really get here in the North Country. There's a chance of snow tonight. It's been cool and wet, so not much has gotten done outside. Sooner or later, I'll be able to dive into some building projects.

One of my plans is to build a rocket stove water heater. A couple years ago I built a solar hot water heater out of a salvaged propane hot water tank, salvaged windows, and some scrap lumber. Only problem, often it doesn't get enough sun to bring the water to a truly satisfying temperature. A wood burning rocket stove should be able to give it that needed boost on cloudy days. It'll also give me a chance to play with rocket stove technology. I'm still debating on whether or not it'd be a good idea to build one in my house for heating.

Today I wandered my cedar swamp, checking out the winter damage. There are some downed trees that might work out as the base of a new boat dock. It would be handy to have a nice place to tie up my sailboat.

Then there is the dinghy project. How hard can it be to slap together a dingy our of plywood and cover it with fiberglass? Probably easier than picking out which boat to build. I must have looked at 30 designs so far. None are quite perfect.

Here are the parameters I've set out for myself: It must be less than 12 feet long, to avoid having to register it. Capacity has to be somewhere between 650 - 800 pounds. That implies a fairly beamy little boat. It must tow well. Should move well under oars and sail. Construction should be cheap and relatively fast. The quest goes on.

Now I have found a few designs that technically roughly fit my parameters, but they don't have soul. They don't appeal to me. What's life without a little poetry in it anyway?

There's a fair backlog of repair and maintenance that has to be done on the house. There's nothing major, but left alone long enough, little problems become big problems.

My lovely wife is going to insist on some more raised beds for veggies. She's gotten serious abut raising a bit more food. How serious? She's dug up flower beds to make room for veggies. Pretty darn serious in my book. She loves her flowers, but sees trouble ahead in world food production.

As soon as it stops raining and warms up a bit, I'll jump right into . . . sailing . . . then my projects.

-Sixbears