Trip to Lowe’s

Building supply centers excite my lovely wife. Her imagination runs wild. She gets all kinds of home improvement ideas. 

We decided to get the 5 cubic foot freezer that was on sale. That’s the purchase we agreed on . . . but then there’s the old sink in the bathroom. My lovely wife wasn’t wrong it does need replacing. Apparently it needs replacing real soon as there’s a new sink in the bathroom waiting to be installed. 

Oh well. 

. . . and to think I balked at the $90 delivery fee. Picking it myself cost over $150 -if you include the new sink and lunch, plus a few gallons of gasoline for the trip. Good thing everything was on sale. 

At any rate, it was a fine day out and I really don’t mind doing these projects. That sink install will be a good rainy day activity. 

I’m just lucky she didn’t like any of the new style kitchen lights. I made the mistake of saying I didn’t like the old kitchen light all that much. Now it’s another mission for my spouse. Eventually she’ll discover a new light she likes. 

-Sixbears

In the dark without glasses

On the spur of the moment my lovely wife and I decided to go fishing in the evening. We were supposed to meet up with friends but my buddy threw his back out. So much for that. He called just as we were about to start the car.

We decided to drive to a nearby lake that we hadn’t been to in a while. The place was empty. It’s a beautiful lake nestled in the mountains. The only cottages on the lake are on the other side in a private compound. 

I keep a couple of compact fishing poles in the back of the car just in case we feel the need to do some fishing. By then it was starting to get dark. It was great fun trying to tie fishing line in the dark without my reading glasses. Apparently the fingers remember what to do and it didn’t take too long to set up both poles. 

Did we catch anything? Naw, but it was a beautiful evening. The loons were doing their crazy calls and we watched the stars come out. 

Sometimes the best experiences are spontaneous. 

-Sixbears

Wife’s Close Call

My lovely wife had a close call on the way home from town. She fell asleep at the wheel. She woke up to the sound of tansys slapping against the car as she careened across a field at 60 mph. In the confusion her foot hit the clutch instead of the brake so the car wasn’t slowing down. She was able to avoid a metal highway reflector and steered back onto the road. 

She was fine. 

The next day we backtracked her path. That short section of field was the only place where it was possible to drive off the road with disaster happening. The rest of the 15 mile route she would have gone down steep embankments, into the river, crashed into trees or rocks. Her guardian angel must has PTSD.

Even the car didn’t make out too badly. There’s a loose heat shield that rattles now. It’s an easy fix. All the plant debris plugged up the cabin filter. The last thing is that the front of the car is covered in pounded up tansy bits. 

The car being in good shape is just a bonus. If the car would have been totaled but my lovely wife okay it would still have been a good day. 

-Sixbears

Crazier than my friends

Over the years I’ve experienced a lot of interesting adventures. In my younger years it wasn’t too hard to find friends who were willing to do wild things. Young men, in general, don’t make the wisest decisions. That’s why the military wants to get them before they get too smart. 

Thirty below zero? Sure, let’s go on a snowshoeing adventure. Three day camping trip living off the land? Sounds like fun. Free climbing mountain cliffs? No problem. Plenty of friends wanted to join me. My white water canoe trips attracted lots of interest. 

I almost signed up for the Water Tribe small boat race. I even built a boat for the event and lined up a  good friend who was willing to take time off from work to do the event with me. That fell apart. However, my lovely wife and I took our Oday 19 sailboat down about 90% of the route in a much more relaxed manner without dealing with the race rules. 

My lovely wife was often very willing to partake in adventures. Hiking, canoeing, snowshoeing, sailing, van life -you name it, she was good to go. 

So who’s going to join me on the Scooter Cannonball? None of my friends have any interest in the event. Of course, we are all getting long in the tooth. That might be an issue. It could be as simple as me finally finding something too crazy for even my crazy friends. 

This looks like it might be a solo event. 

. . . however, I do have a daughter who expressed an interest in driving a support truck for me. Must be my genes influencing her to make crazy decisions. 

 . . . or maybe she’s afraid what her dear old dad will get up to without adult supervision. 

-Sixbears

Two Weeks Later

After two weeks with her folks in Texas my lovely wife is coming home. Her dad’s been dealing with cancer and her mom suffers from dementia. A sudden trip to Texas wasn’t in the plans but sometimes you have to get together with family while it’s still possible. At least my mother-in-law recognized her daughter so that was good. 

As for myself I had a lot of stuff of planned. I probably got half of it done. Between waiting for scooter parts and bad weather some things just didn’t happen. On the other hand, I accomplished a few big things that weren’t in the original plans. That was nice. One item was a nagging concern for the last two years and the opportunity to sort it out fell in my lap. It was worth not going to Texas just to get those things done and over with. 

On a lighter note I was able to play chess with someone I never played against before. I’m definitely not a pro -just an enthusiastic amateur. I got interested in chess way back in the Bobby Fisher days. Back then chess was pretty big and there were a lot of clubs. While my game was rusty, it was good enough to win six games in a row over two days of playing. Maybe my friend won’t want to play chess with me anymore? Oh well. 

One thing about me and games. If you do beat me you know I didn’t let you win. I’ve too much respect for my opponents to make it easy for them.

-Sixbears

Back to town

Going back into town was not in Thursday’s plans. Then I got a call from the motorcycle parts department that my scooter parts were in. It’s rare that I’d go into town for just one thing so I got some grocery shopping out of the way while there. 

By the time I got home storm clouds were moving in and the bugs were out in force. That was enough to discourage me from pulling the scooter apart. 

Friday night is another campfire night with friends. My cousin is having a bunch of folks over. If the weather is bad we’ll just move the grill to the porch and call it good. The fellowship of campfire night doesn’t actually require a campfire.

My lovely wife is in Texas for another week, dealing with family business. I miss her. Maybe one of these days I’ll tell the story about how we met. We really clicked and got married four months later. Both of us were just 20 years old but that was old enough to know what we wanted in a relationship. 

-Sixbears

Bad Coffee

My lovely wife is visiting in TX. Sadly, she’s staying with people who don’t know how to make a good cup of coffee. 

She ordered a five pound bag of organic fair trade coffee from Dean’s Beans. Then she ordered a coffee roaster and grinder off of Amazon. Does this sound like an over reaction? Maybe it does to you but to me it makes perfect sense. 

My lovely wife is dealing with some difficult family issues. At least now she can have the comfort a good cup of coffee. 

It won’t be quite as good as coffee at home. We’ve got better water here and that makes a difference. However, it will be a big improvement over the cheap crap she’s been forced to drink. 

-Sixbears

I step out for a few hours . . .

. . . and my lovely wife “cleaned” my office. 

The first thing I saw when I came home was a broken file cabinet in the hallway. That wasn’t good. The kitchen table was covered in paperwork. I’m going to have to sort through all that paper in the next couple of days. At first glance it looks like the current in progress files have been mixed with the archived files. I just can’t deal with it right now, but some of that of that stuff has to be dealt with soonish. 

On the plus side, the office really is a lot cleaner. I’ve also got a lot more pens and unused notebooks than I thought I did. 

Another downside is that she “simplified” the wires in the office. That meant that desk lamp didn’t work anymore and the Internet router and phone modem were down. Since I was able to post this it’s obvious the Internet issues were fixed. 

The last time my office was deep cleaned was when I spent a week in the hospital. Apparently I’m much more comfortable with a certain level of clutter and chaos than my lovely wife is. 

You know those minimalist people? I’m not one of them. I supposed it’s good that someone tackles the mess now and then, but it always freaks me out. I was only grouchy for a little while. 

-Sixbears

Herb Lady

My lovely wife is constantly adding to her herbal knowledge. We have a lot of natural medicines growing wild here in the North Country. 

She’s been adding to her library. Our herbal books are not digital but on actual paper for safe keeping. In recent years she’s joined up with a botanical society and that’s also boosted her knowledge. 

The problem with herbal medicines is that they are only available in the wild during the warm months. Most plants have to be gathered during specific times. Sometimes it’s the new leaves or the flower or the berry or even the roots. Staying on top of what’s available when can be a major undertaking. 

Preserving the herbal medicines is also a major part of the process. That way you have access when you need it. You really don’t want to be wandering around the woods when actively sick. 

Over the years my lovely wife has transplanted a number of useful plants onto our property. To the average person they just looks like wild weeds. To those in the know, they are treasures.

-Sixbears

It’s been a trip

Sometimes you just have to take a couple days and drive a few hundred miles just to tell a friend you love him. My brother from another mother is dying in home hospice. We had about 20 minutes where he was conscious and lucid. It was worth the trip. My friend is with us still, but spends most of his time asleep. On the bright side, there’s no pain.

Unfortunately, that evening my wife had some mysterious medical issues. I was concerned enough to call the ambulance to take her to the hospital. Long story short, they stabilized her and four hours later she could go home. No idea what brought the symptoms on. 

There are some possibilities that need to be looked into. She’s got an appoint to see her regular doctor and we hope to get in with a neurologist. Currently she’s fine and pretty normal -but that’s how she was before the “incident.” This could be some variation of issues she’s been dealing with for years. It could even be long covid causing issues. Right now we just don’t know.

As for myself, I’m getting a check up. I just qualified for Medicare so I have to take the insurance out for a ride. I really could use a new c-pap. For the last couple of decades I’ve been reprogramming and rebuilding used machines. It would be nice to take advantage of the newer technologies. 

Anyway, we keep on keeping on.

-Sixbears

Readings from the Book of Chapman

That would be the Chapman Book of Piloting and Seamanship. 

My lovely wife and I have gone back to doing daily readings from the Book of Chapman. It’s a great way to stay up on our skills. It also gets us looking forward to getting the sailboat back in the water. 

We still have our Oday 19 sailboat. This is the same boat we once spent 10 weeks on. One winter we sailed down the west coast of Florida and crossed Florida Bay to the Keys. Good times. We really haven’t gone on any long sailing adventures with it since 2019. Like many people we were dealing with other things. 

The boat is basically in pretty decent shape still. Thanks to Spud I have a nice little Honda outboard on it. What I’d like to do is to completely rewired everything. With a boat that small it’s not really that big a job. The available switch panels don’t impress me so building one from basic components is the way to go. It also needs the shelves rebuilt. Adding more solar electric is also an option. 

The thing about boat repairs is knowing when to stop. You can spend all your time doing upgrades and never get on the water. On the other hand, the boat has to be safe and comfortable. 

This coming season I’d love to get back out on the big wilderness lakes near me. My lovely wife would like to get back out on the Hudson River, which is where she grew up. The coast of Maine is also an option. 

Right now the boat is still buried under a couple feet of snow. In the mean time, we have readings from the good book.

-Sixbears

More Delays

Ho boy. Like they say: if it’s not one thing, it’s two or more things. Maybe I’m the only one who says that. 

I haven’t had the mental energy to blog lately. Too much stuff going on. Sometimes I don’t blog about the other stuff going on my life and this has been one of those times. 

There are a lot of time sinks right now. For example my lovely wife dealing with a damaged tendon in her thumb. She has to baby it so it’ll heal, but has to use it enough so it doesn’t seize up. Because of her injury there’s been a bit more of the daily chores that need my attention. 

Of course, there’s the snowstorms that keep coming in. Shoveling seems to be taking up way too much of my time. 

Just to make it interesting there’s enough other stuff that breaks down and needs my attention. 

Then there’s all that boring adult stuff like paperwork that needs doing. I try to simplify my life in that regard but paperwork seems to breed paperwork. Some of it is good. For example, I’m actually getting Medicare this month. It will be good to have some sort of health insurance. 

Anyway . . . 

Life goes on.

-Sixbears

Reflections on Sailboat Shopping

My lovely wife and I were reminiscing about the times we went shopping for sailboats. A few of our excursions stand out. 

She brought up the time we looked at a bilge keel Westerly sailboat. They are very popular in England. When the tide goes out they can sit level on their two keels without tipping over. That’s super handy in places with high tides. 

On paper the boat looked like a good fit for us. It was a smaller Westerly that sat on a trailer. When we got there the boat didn’t exactly match the photo. It had been sitting in the guy’s yard a long time. There was two feet of water in the boat. We felt bad for the old guy and helped him pump the boat out. No way were we going to buy a boat that neglected. 

Then there was the issue of the trailer. It looked pretty sketchy. The guy eventually admitted he had a crane at the marina take the boat on and off the trailer for him. No way could it be launched at a ramp. 

That reminded us of another trailer sailer we looked at. It was an Oday 22 in excellent condition. Everything ran perfectly. The sails were almost new. Once again, the problem was the trailer. It was a weird beast of a trailer constructed mostly of heavy wooden beams. On the phone the owner said he used the trailer every year. Only when we got there did the guy admit that he only lived a half mile from the marina and never went over 15 mph. Here too,  a crane was used to load and unload the boat. 

Living in the mountains of New Hampshire we don’t have a lot of sailboats in our area so we like to check out any that come for sale close to home. One the guy was willing to practically give a boat to us. The  catch? It was in a field surrounded by huge poisonous hogweed plants. We weren’t going to go anywhere near it. Another boat had a seriously bent mast. The same boat had been rewired with all the junctions meeting deep in the bilge -where all the water settles. Hard pass. 

A Catalina on Craigslist looked extremely well equipped for the price. Once we got there we could see that all the equipment was actually there. The problem was that everything was worn out and on its last legs. 

We also would occasionally check out boats too big to be hauled to boat ramps. At one time we entertained keeping a boat in Florida. That way we wouldn’t have to tow anything all the way from New Hampshire. One Peterson we looked at appeared to be a jewel. It was clean and looked in excellent shape. A known tiller issue had already been fixed. The deal breaker? When we lifted the floor boards we saw the keel bolts were piles of rust. They didn’t even look like bolts. No sense buying a boat that has a keel about to fall off. 

We still get tempted to buy bigger boats, but right now we are sticking with our little Oday 19. 

-Sixbears

Long Strange Solar Road

Roughly 30 years ago my lovely wife and I decided to install significant solar electric power. Back then there were basically three groups of people invested in solar: NASA, California pot growers, and us. It was expensive and plenty of people told me it wouldn’t work here in northern New Hampshire. 

Back then it wasn’t plug and play like it is now. I read a lot of books. There was a company in Massachusetts, Fowler Electric, that dealt in kits. That saved me a lot of headaches. At least someone had some knowledge of New England conditions. I still did all the work myself and fabricated my battery storage, electronics layout, and solar array. 

So why did I go with solar when no one else was? I’d wanted to do it for a long time, but my wife needed convincing. Living out in the sticks our power went out a lot. Worse yet, when we’d call the power company they wouldn’t believe that our power was out. They didn’t receive any other complaints. That’s because in those days what neighbors we had were seasonal. It would be months before they’d notice. 

One day my wife called the power company to complain and they insultingly told her there was nothing she could do about it. She hung up the phone, looked at me, and said, “We are getting solar.”

Other people in my situation put in big generators and called it good. I’m not a big fan of gas or diesel generators. One of my jobs in the Fire Department was to keep the generators on my truck running. It was a royal pain. You do all the maintenance, test weekly, and sometimes they’d fail when you needed them most. 

So I subtracted the price of a hefty generator and the solar numbers looked a lot better. Then when I added in the fact it would offsetting my grid power every day it was even better. Having power that could not be shut off was the best. 

My neighbors still thought it was a waste of money and wouldn’t work. Then we got a massive ice storm that shut down the grid for a week. We watched across the lake as folks started up their generators. Then over the next few days we watched their lights go out as they eventually ran out of fuel. The roads were too dangerous to drive on so getting more fuel was difficult.  My lovely wife, sick of years of ridicule, made sure we had a lot of lights on every night. People knew we didn’t have a generator as it was totally quiet. 

Since we aren’t total jerks we had a lot of folks over for movie nights and let people take hot showers. While our solar electric system wasn’t big, it kept the lights on, the water pump pumping and ran some electronics. 

We still have the original solar panels. They’ve been added to over the years. The charge controller was upgraded to a more efficient model. Our original inverter is still chugging along. The batteries have been changed a few times, but they’d last a good ten year before needing replacement. The expense isn’t too bad figured over the course of a decade. 

So, in short, solar works -even here in the Great North Woods. 

-Sixbears

Small town life

There’s something special about living in a small town. 

I was about five miles from home when I got a flat tire on the scooter. I called my lovely wife. She immediately hopped in the car with a compressor and a patch kit. 

So there I was, just chilling on the side of the road. A pickup truck stopped. It was a friend of mine asking if I was all right. He decided to stop and visit. Then my lovely wife pulled up. A van pulled in behind her. It was a cousin, his wife and two of his kids. He happened to recognize all of us and wondered what was up.

So now we have four vehicles and bunch of people on the side of the road. A car with New York plates stops and the driver asks if everyone is okay. I assured him we were fine. 

If any more people showed up we’d need to set up a grill and start some burgers. 

Fortunately it only took a few minutes to put a plug in the tire pump it up. We broke up the party and headed home. 

That’s life in a small town.

-Sixbears

Sailboat Upgrades

We just received another eight inches of snow, so of course I’m thinking about sailing. There are warmer days in the forecast. There’s often a window of time where it’s warm enough to work on the boat but really too cold to launch it. During that oh so brief window I like to get things sorted.

The Oday 19 has been holding up well over the years. We’ve gotten a lot of joy out of it and we’ve done things people are scared to do in much bigger boats. That being said the boat could use some love.

The cabin needs new shelves. On a tiny boat getting them right is crucial. A good friend of mine has volunteered to help me design and build them. While he’s visiting I’d love to put him to work on other boat projects. He’s a skilled engineer.

I’ve decided rip out all the old wiring and start from scratch. Over the years there’s been a lot of splicing and rerouting going on. The commercial switch panel doesn’t excite me either. Building a custom one from scratch should work better. Commercial boat electronics seem to be either too poorly built, too expensive, or too expensive and crap at the same time. By building my own I can get exactly what I want.

It would also be nice to add more solar electric power. That might involve building a solar arch to mount them on. Hope my engineer friend can help me with that too.

The trailer could use a bit of work too, but that will be done after I launch the boat on the lake.

My lovely wife and I plan on doing a lot of sailing in New England during the warm weather. It’s up in the air if we’ll bring the boat down to Florida next winter.

Of course, with the way of the world, everything is up in the air. Plenty of things could ruin our plans, but if you don’t make plans for sure nothing will happen.

-Sixbears

Been a Long Time

Yep, it’s been a long time. Too much to catch up on so let’s just say I’m back. Let’s just touch on a few highs and lows.

I was in Texas part of the winter. For a number of reasons I didn’t want most people to know my house was unoccupied. That only explains part of my silence.

Some of it was just a matter of being busy with my own business. Stuff happens. Other times I’m making stuff happen.

Like most people I’ve been watching the war in Ukraine. Russia cannot win this. They could destroy the country and call it victory, but they can’t win.

People are freaking out about gas prices. As an old guy who got his driver’s license in the 70s, this feels really familiar. Looks like my 100 mpg scooter will be doing a lot of errands. Just got a new tire for it before tire prices go through the roof. Anything made from petroleum is going up.

So it’s interesting times. Throw another bag of rice on the pile. Keep your iodide pills nearby and your powder dry.

Don’t forget to have some good times too as there’s more to life than just having a heartbeat.

My lovely wife and I are doing fine. We had a bout of covid. For us it was like a very mild cold, but we are vaxxed to the max. I was pretty ticked off because we were staying with relatives who needed our help but would not take basic precautions. One person in the household had a very bad time indeed but recovered.

Unfortunately we lost Brownie the Sailor Dog before Christmas. The poor old girl had a ruptured spleen and died from internal bleeding. It was unexpected. She was a very good dog and there’s a hole in our hearts.

Anyway, be well.

-Sixbears

Boat Solar

My sailboat has a very small solar panel and a cheap charge controller. I go with cheap ones as the marine environment is tough on electronics. Expensive ones seem to fry just as easily as cheap ones -unless I buy one of the silly expensive marine units. Since it’s a cheap controller there’s no voltage meter included. Now and then I just test the voltage with a meter. That’s how I discovered the battery wasn’t taking a charge.

Chasing electrical issues on a boat is always fun. My lovely wife volunteered to climb in and help me chase wires. She fits into tight places a lot better than I do. She’s a darn fine first mate.

It took a bit of doing, but eventually the problem was traced to a corroded connection. Only then did I remember having done a quick “temporary” field repair, about 7 years ago. This time the connection was made with proper crimp connectors.

I’m glad that’s all it was. Fixing it while the boat is on the trailer is much easier than when in the water.

-Sixbears

Without a net

Camping in the State of Florida is at a premium during the winter months. People make reservations months in advance. We tend to book about a week ahead of time. It can be tricky doing it that way, but we really don’t know exactly what we’ll want to do months in advance.

We had a secure option at the last campground, but my lovely wife was ready to move on. Some campgrounds have first come first serve sites. She gambled that the one open site at this campground would still be open when we got here. Sure enough, she was able to score three nights just by showing up.

I’ve got to give her credit. This site is nicer than the last one we stayed at.

I’ve come to a decision about an outboard motor. Unless a super deal on a good used one pops up, I’m going with a little Honda 2.3 long shaft. It’s small, but big enough to do the job. Being air cooled, I don’t have deal with flushing salt water out of water pumps. Changing impellers can be a pain and it doesn’t have one of those either. One of the big factors is that the motor only weighs 30 pounds.

Now all I have to do is find a dealer that has one.

In my travels I met a guy who describes himself as a survivalist. He lives on about 60 acres in Arkansas. The guy is in his 70s and never got a SS number. His sons don’t even have birth certificates. He was camping in a converted box trailer. The guy did a nice job. We had some interesting discussions, but I’m going to respect his privacy and leave it at that.

-Sixbears

After much discussion

After much discussion my lovely wife and I came to a decision. When our electric motor failed we weren’t sure what we were going to do. While I got it running again, I still hesitate to trust it.

We didn’t know if we should park the boat for the boat for the winter because didn’t have a trusty motor. In the end, we’ve decided to go outboard motor shopping. It’s most likely going to be a small gasoline engine, but I’m not totally opposed to propane either.

Not only are we looking for an outboard, we’ve decided to go with a new one. I’m really not in the mood to buy someone else’s problems right now.

The two of us had given serious thought about buying a new motor before heading south, but decided against it. The thinking was that we should give the electric motor a solid test first. If we had to buy a motor, there’s a lot more options here in Florida. Not a lot of sailboat outboards get sold during the winter in the mountains of New Hampshire.

My lovely wife and I have been talking about a lot more than outboards. That was a catalyst to discussions of greater and wider issues. There are changes going on in our lives and all around us. The warm weather and greater opportunities for outdoor exercise have done me a lot of good. I’ve needs, but so does my lovely wife. This has been a transitional year. At some point we’ve got to figure out our lifestyle for the next few years.

Even our home situation back in NH is on the table. It’s beautiful there and we love it, but none of our children and grandchildren are local anymore. Every year there seems to less reason to stay.

Maybe we’ll do something totally unexpected like move to Spain or something. You never know.

-Sixbears