BEE’ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

We seem to have an infestation of German bees. My son told me to use a vacuum (shop vac) and suck the bees to  their doom.. and it worked! He set the vacuumed up outside of the house where they were getting in and it sucked in every bee that tried to come or go into the house. After that I took down the hanging ceiling and sucked the nest apart. It was amazing to see a bee flying toward you and move the wand to intercept it and… ZOOP! The bee just disappears! Sucked right into the vac.

On the attack

 

Life in Michigan

Lots to do in Michigan this year.

Moving to her summer storage spot

The Goose is high and dry for the summer and has survived the near miss by Hurricane Arthur which brushed the coast of NC where the Snow Goose is stored. Anna has taken up gardening for her clients again and is enjoying our "pavillion" down by the lake with her friends.

I’m deep into contraction jobs but finally had time to put Ginger, our little “cat” boat finally went back into the water and we had a marvelous sail the other day.

 
Now that we live on a lake, the grand kids beg to come up to see us and to stay the night.

                          
 Oh, and we had to get reading glasses for Edie, she is now 14 years old and couldn’t read the labels on her pill bottles anymore.


Woof!, old age ain't no fun!

Enjoy the summer!

Cracking a safe

They had a city wide garage sale down in Oriental NC. (It’s a very small town). There was a LOT of houses with their yard filled with everything from a few items up to tables of stuff. What interested me though was at the Masonic Lodge building. They had opened up the building as a gathering spot for members to sell their “stuff” and the lawn was packed with precious items. Inside of the building there were even more things but what caught my eye was an old upright safe. After talking with the lodge members they told me that they have had the safe for decades and no one knew the combination. I explained that in a previous career, I was a safe technician and that I could find the combination easily for them. After examination of the safe and lock I estimate is that it was from the turn of the century (IE: 1900 to 1910)and in few minutes, I discovered the 4 numbers of the combination for them. It sure was fun getting my hands back into a trade that I really enjoyed and finding a use for the “U.S. Post Office” training in safe cracking that I was sent to those many years ago. Garage sales, you just never know what you might run into!

Little Library

While walking Edie around our little corner of Oriental NC. I came across the smallest library in existence. In front of a house is this small box on a post named the “Little Free Library”.

 

 

 

 

We’ve talked to the owners of the house and they think that it’s a good way to find a new home for the books that you have already read. The Little Library is a “give or take” library so you can take a book or place one into it. I think that it’s a great idea. If you live in an area that needs a library and your own book collection is getting a bit out of hand, try placing a “Little Library” box out front and share the gift of stories with your neighborhood!

 

Life in a marina

What a change a single day can make. We went from finding a quite place to drop a hook at night with the only worry being which way the wind was coming from or how strong the current might be to living at the dock, a car, neighbors (5 feet away) and becoming a ‘working stiff’ again. Within a day of arriving I was offered the dubious honor of removing a rotting bulkhead and replacing it in a power boat. I think I like the Bahamas better!


getting "suited up" to grind fiberglass



Old bulkhead out, new one in

                                                                     We (meaning "I") have several large jobs to do on the Snow Goose. The bimini must come off for refurbishment so, the solar panels need to come off from it first. The rubber on the deck still has to be finished and (of course) the  round of spring varnishing needs to be done.

strange place to put a solar pannel

The underside of our cockpit cover (the bimini) needed varnish and it's much easier to do it upside down.

First though, our trusty 2.5 hp outboard needed attention. A bolt had come loose in the engine letting the magneto hit the flywheel (Ding, ding ,ding) and there’s also a leak from the thermostat cover. It turned out that under the cover is a sacrificial anode (the owners manual doesn’t say anything about it in) and over the last few years, it has sacrificed itself. As it slowly corroded away it pluged up the cooling water passageway and pushed the cover gasket out of place resulting in the leak. $20 in parts later (and 3 hrs of work) and the dinghy motor is good as new again. I truly believe that to be a cruiser you have to be part mechanic or inherit lots of money! Alas, since we’re deficient in one area, I am forced to work on the things that break on our boat.

Trip north

 

The ride north this year was very fast and we had little in the way of bad weather. We traveled over 400 miles in the first 3 days with out running into any bad weather.

sunset out in the ocean

Then it was into Ga. for a weather event and 2 1/2 days travel up to SC. Then back out onto the ocean for another 2 day before coming back into the ICW for our last 2 days to Oriental and our marina here at Deaton’s. Our last night out, we treated our self’s and stayed in the Cape lookout “bight”. It’s a perfect little bay surrounded by sand dunes at the southern tip of the outer banks. Anna went shelling and brought back a whole sack of shells…Anyone need some shells??? Please!



This is the view looking back from the beach towards the Snow Goose with the Cape Lookout Lighthouse

We finally made it back to the marina where I have several weeks of boat work and maybe some contracting work too. Then it’s off to Michigan for the summer.

Dinghy troubles

 

Never, never, NEVER buy a dinghy built in China for Big Dog Boats! Am I plain enough now?

While in the Bahamas, more things started to come unglued from the dinghy. The oar lock simple fell off one day (along with the ore)! The ore keepers also pealed off and the skid strip on the bottom has come loose in the front and the rear. But the worst was the large plastic part that joins the transom to the boat. It came unglued from the tube. It wasn’t bad enough that the entire transom came un-glued,,, NO,,, now the tubes are separating from the transom too. It’s a shame since the boat is just the right shape, size, and weight for our needs. I guess when a company builds something to a bottom price you get what you pay for…I did so, Beware!



Some of the parts that hus keep falling off.

The molded part that glues to the tube is comming off.

It's a good thiing that I bought a LARGE size tube of glue!

Parts glued back on.